Ana Ivanovic breezes past Tamira Paszek in the opening round – Brisbane International 2012
World number 22, Ana Ivanovic, trounced over Tamira Paszek, in straight sets at the Brisbane International 2012, a build-up tournament for the Australian Open. She formulated a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the 21-year-old Austrian, ranked 20 spots below her in
the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Rankings, to book a second round spot on Monday.
Former world number one, Ivanovic, recreated her 2008 magic to dump the Austrian in an hour and 20 minutes long marathon. She not only avenged her loss at Montreal but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against Paszek.
The gorgeous Serb made a superb start in the opening set, as she drew the first blood in the opening game and took a 1-0 lead. Despite of losing her edge in the fourth game, she broke Paszek’s serve again in the following game and put her nose ahead once
again. Ivanovic then held her remaining serves and broke the youngster’s serve again in the end to clinch the opener with a 6-3 score line. She failed to defend the only breakpoint she came across but converted half of the six break chances to her advantage.
The 24-year-old Serb kept her spark in the second set as she unleashed barrage of groundstrokes to reel off opening four games in a row before gifting away her serve. Ivanovic lost her serve again in the seventh game but remained on course and bagged the
set with a 6-3 win again. Ivanovic fended off half of the four breakpoints she faced and cashed in all three break opportunities to win comfortably.
Overall, the Serb spilled fewer unforced errors and smashed five massive aces. She also produced a better first serve share of 65 percent, as opposed to Paszek’s 59 and secured an impressive 20 out of 31 points.
Next up for the high flying Serb is the fifth seed, Kim Clijsters, who crippled Romanian Simona Halep with a breadstick to reach this spot. The Belgian number one suffered most of the 2011 season with injuries, however, she won the Australian Open in the
start of the year. Ivanovic on the other hand needs to practice harder to overpower the seed.
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