2011 French Open: Johanna Larsson upsets Ana Ivanovic in the first round
Swede Johanna Larsson survived a mid match lapse against former world number one Ana Ivanovic to move into the second round at the 2011 Roland Garros on Tuesday. The Swede recorded a 7-6(3), 0-6 , 6-2 victory against the Serb in
almost two hours.
The pair have contested before at Luxembourg a year ago with Ivanovic emerging as the victor at 6-3, 6-0. Standing on a one match advantage, pundits expected Ivanovic looked destroy the Swede in straight sets.
Set at Suzanne Lenglen at Stade Roland Garros, Ivanovic followed top Brit Andy Murray for her own opening round matchup. Only moments ago, Murray had blasted away local Eric Prodon in straight sets clinching a 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 victory
to secure a berth for himself in the second round.
However, the Serb had clearly been dealt from a different pack. Despite having the advantage over her Swede opponent, the latter matched blow for blow against the Serb. Keeping the scoreboard ticking on even terms, Larsson forced
the former world number one into a tiebreaker.
Desperate to outshine the Serb, Larsson sent a couple of powerful winners down the court as she raced to a 4-0 lead in the tiebreaker. Combined with the errors from her opponent with a loss of only three points, Larsson was able
to extend her lead to 6-3 before finally clinching the tiebreaker 7-3.
Trailing the set score 0-1, Ivanovic was ruthless in her comeback as she denied the Swede even a single game. Exhibiting her lost glory and skills, Ivanovic broke the Swede thrice to clinch an early, solid 5-0 lead. Serving for
the set at 5-0, Ivanovic sailed to a bagel victory losing only one point in the sixth game. This is the Serb’s second bagel set victory against the Swede.
With one set win each, the match entered the “make it or break it” deciding set. Ivanovic carried her momentum from the second set to break Larsson in the very first game. However, she was broken in the very next to keep the score
tied. Breaking the Serb again in the fourth game, Larsson rushed into a 4-1 lead which she extended to 6-2 to seal her three set victory
Larsson moves on ahead to play Russian Ekaterina Makarova. Makarova moved into the second round after surviving a mid match lapse against Italian Romina Oprandi in her first round match. The Russian secured a 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 win
against the Italian earlier today.
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