Ana Ivanovic pounds Lourdes Dominguez-Lino in the opening round – Australian Open 2012
Former world number one, Ana Ivanovic, put up a show of her lifetime against the Spanish, Lourdes Dominguez-Lino, in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday. Millions of tennis fanatics glued to their television to witness
the queen of Serbia hammering the Spaniard in straight sets 6-0, 6-3. The contest was played at the Show Court 2 in Melbourne, where everyone was cheering one name ‘Ana’ throughout the match.
Mammoth support from the crowd, coupled with some breathtaking forceful display of all around shot making, helped Ivanovic to place the second round berth in the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. The most fascinating
thing to watch was the net points that Ivanovic gobbled up, which were almost four times greater than her opponent. She launched frequent forays to the net to convert juicy volleys into cross-courts winners and kept building up pressure on her opponent by
this attacking strategy.
Score line itself portrays the level of domination shown by the Serb at the courts. She was all over her opponent, nailing her down at every aspect of the game. The height advantage played a major part in Ivanovic’s triumph, as
she usually had to face the lobbed returns from her opponent that were smacked back with fierce pace.
It was the display of sheer class and domination from the queen of heart. She never looked to be in trouble for once and trounced at every possible opportunity to gulp the points. First set was a bagel and it witnessed three successive
breaks for the Serb. She smashed a couple of aces to round off the first set proceedings.
Spaniard pulled back few games in the second set that created a hint of doubt in the viewers mind about a comeback. The Serb was still dominating the show but her performance was depleting due to the fatigue factor. She exerted
so much stamina in the first set, during those rocket paced smashed down the line, that she seemed a bit off the line for the first few games.
Both players hung on to their serves in the first seven games and much to the delight of the supporters at the arena, the Serb broke her opponent’s serve in the eighth game and held her serve to march into the second round in grand
fashion. She showed her delight with a double punch in the air and left the arena giving autographs to her fans.
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