Ana Ivanovic gusts away Christina McHale in round one – China Open 2012
World number 12, Ana Ivanovic, toppled the 28th ranked American star, Christina McHale, in the opening round of the China Open at Beijing. On Friday, the 24-year-old Serb gusted away her rival in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
It was a good start for the former world number one who needs to capture a lot of points before the final list of the Top-8 players is delivered to the officials of the season-end finale in Istanbul.
Ivanovic begin with a serve hold to love and captured a 30:15 lead in the return game but couldn’t capitalize on the good start and the scores were levelled at 1-1. Both players paid a lot of attention to their serve games and
stayed cautious to push the scores in a see-saw fashion. No drama was witnessed for the first seven games of the match and it seemed like there will be no breakthroughs throughout the set.
However, the welcome breakpoint for the 12th ranked Serb was witnessed in the eighth game when she hammered a scintillating winner down the line to take a lead of 5-3. She just had to hold serve and Ivanovic did in style.
Trailing a set down, McHale looked a bit broken after a promising start; just a mere mistake in the crucial stage of the set cost her lot.
The second set witnessed a serve hold at both ends for the first four games. It was a tradition start to the proceedings that was soon turned around by the experienced 24-year-old Serb. She broke her rival’s serve to take a lead
of 3-2. The 20-year-old American couldn’t reply immediately and sunk to a trail of 2-4.
Things looked good for the former world number one who clasped another breakthrough and survived the onslaught of her competitor to end the encounter in just under an hour. Ivanovic needs a good run of form to claim points that
will help her contest for the eighth spot in the world that will take her to Istanbul for the season-end finale.
Ana Ivanovic faces Varvara Lepchenko in the second round battle of the tournament.
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