Ana Ivanovic expels Mathilde Johansson in round one – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Former world number one, Ana Ivanovic, started the Mutua Madrid Open campaign in grand fashion; ousting the 88th ranked French starlet, Mathilde Johansson, in straight sets 6-4, 6-1.
Johansson was facing the Serb after a gap of almost eight years, having lastly played in Batumi 2004. She was unable to complete that match due to an injury and pulled out of the contest in the second set. However, this time around,
it didn’t take long for the 24-year-old Serb to power down the French and move ahead in the tournament.
On Friday, Ivanovic practiced at the blue clay court for the first time and updated her facebook fan page status, “I practised on the blue clay for the first time today. It's not bad. I was less concerned about the colour and more
concerned about the bounce and the overall consistency of the surface: it's quite heavy clay (there's a lot of it) and very different from Stuttgart. It's more like the conditions in Moscow two weeks ago.”
The win must have helped the 13th seed Serb to settle some nerves that are ignited after the introduction of blue clay court surface for the first time in the history of tennis. Ivanovic faced a lot of difficulty in
holding on to her first serve but eventually she did.
However, she replied in stunning fashion; winning four points on the trot in the fourth game to register the first breakthrough of the match. She scuttled past her opponent with another breakthrough in the sixth game but failed
to hold on to her serve that lowered her lead to 5-2.
The French starlet continued her cameo and won another breakpoint that further diminished the trail to 4-5 but Johansson was unable to hold the most crucial serve of the set and lost the opening battle. The French saved six breakpoints
in the match compared to four of her opponent but couldn’t save the most critical one in the final game. Luck was on Serb’s side who took the first set lead.
Despite showing enough courage to fight back two breaks down in the opening set, the 27-year-old French failed to impose the same kind of impact in the second half of the match. She lost three breakpoints on the trot and only reversed
one back in the third game.
Ivanovic’s lead grew to 5-1 and she held her serve with ease in the sixth game to book a spot in the second round of the tournament against the Russian tennis icon, Nadia Petrova.
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