Ivanovic too strong for Stosur

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:37

The 13th seed arrived at Wimbledon last year as the French Open champion and top of the world rankings, but slipped to fifth in the rankings by the end of the year after losing in the third round to Chinese wild card Jie Zheng before failing to win back-to-back matches in her next five tournaments.

But after saving a match point in the opening round earlier this week, the 21-year-old has been improving steadily and looked close to her best as she beat Australia’s French Open semi-finalist Samantha Stosur 7-5 6-2 on Court Two.

Ivanovic broke Stosur’s serve in the opening game of the match, and then held her own with the aid of three aces, dropping just three points on serve before a lapse of concentration in the eighth game allowed Stosur to get back on level terms.

That prompted the first chants of “Let’s go Sammy” from the yellow-shirted Australian fans occupying two rows of seats, but their support failed to have the desired effect, Stosur serving back-to-back double faults to lose her serve again.

Another ace from Ivanovic – clocked at 112mph – gave Ivanovic three set points and she took the second one to claim the set in 38 minutes.

The second set followed a similar pattern to the first, 19th seed Stosur again losing her serve in the opening game, but this time Ivanovic also added a second break after a thumping return winner to charge into a 4-0 lead.

Stosur saved a match point on her own serve to keep the match alive, but Ivanovic was not to be denied and served out to complete an impressive victory and secure a last-16 clash with either Venus Williams or Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro.

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