Ivanovic sleepwalks into Open quarters
Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic reached the Australian Open quarter-finals
for the first time Monday, but only after receiving a wake-up call from
unheralded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
The Serbian world number three admitted she was sleepwalking for
periods of her match against the 17-year-old Dane but roused herself to
score a 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) win.
The victory sets up a quarter-final with six-time Grand Slam champion
Venus Williams or Polish qualifier Marta Domachowska.
Ivanovic appeared to be strolling to an easy win after dominating the
early stages but found herself in a dogfight later on to avoid dropping
her first set of the tournament.
She said she was thrown off balance by her first morning match at
this year's season-opening Grand Slam after enjoying long lies-in before
her previous appearances.
"I played very well in the beginning and started to get a little bit
tired in the second and a little bit sleepy," she said.
"This is the first time I've played the first (morning) match and I
was sleeping in through the whole week really long in the morning, today
I had to wake up really early."
Ivanovic broke Wozniacki's serve in the opening game and hardly
raised a sweat taking then first set.
Finding her opponent was comfortable rallying from the baseline,
Ivanovic mixed up her game, serving powerfully, approaching the net and
landing drop shots as she ran Wozniacki around.
When the opening set finished 31 minutes later, Ivanovic had sent
down 15 winners and Wozniacki had produced none.
Ivanovic faced more of a challenge in the second set, when Wozniacki
broke her in the fifth game.
The teenager suffered a thigh strain and needed court-side treatment
immediately after taking the advantage but showed no ill effects as she
stepped up the aggression to go up 4-2.
She had three chances to break Ivanovic again in the seventh game but
the Serb was able to hold her off with powerful serving and a bit of
luck when a forehand return flicked off the net and left Wozniacki
wrong-footed.
The Dane then had three set points at 6-5 but Ivanovic held on to
force a tiebreak, running away with the decider 7-2 to end the match
after one hour 35 minutes. Melbourne, Monday
AFP |
