Ana Ivanovic scuttles past Maria Kirilenko in round two – Dubai Championships 2012
Former World Number one, Ana Ivanovic, scuttled past the Russian beauty starlet, Maria Kirilenko, in the second round contest of the Dubai Duty Free Championships. On Wednesday, both contestants locked horns for the sixth time in their professional careers
and the Serb diva gobbled up her fourth head-to-head win in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(4) in a couple of hours time.
The opening set was a pure display of class and domination from the Serb who came out with initial outbreak and grabbed first four games of the match. Kirilenko managed to squeeze one break back but was unable to cast another breakpoint to her name.
Luckily for Ivanovic, her opponent was not touching the sublime and missing several first serves. Kirilenko was under the cosh and served to stay in the match but was broken by Ivanovic who gusted past her in the opening set.
The Russian was caught on her heels and was not anticipating the returns correctly. She was looking out of touch and the initial break further brought her confidence down. Trailing one set down and looking to power down a superior ranked contestant, Kirilenko
started the second set with a successful breakthrough but just to see her serve broken in the following game.
Few more breakpoints were shared in the ratio of 2:1 to Ivanovic in the following three games that registered the lead for the Serb. She capitalised on that and further pushed her opponent down with scores progressing 4-2.
Kirilenko was not going to give up so early and her willpower kept her in the battle. She broke serve in the eighth game to level the scores 4-4. Suddenly both players were on back together on scores. A couple successful serve holds at either ends witnessed
scores progressing 6-6.
A tie-breaker round started with an early mini-break for the Serb who held it until the end and booked a date with the third seed Dane, Caroline Wozniacki.
On her triumph, Ivanovic stated, “It was a little bit of a strange match, especially the second set. There were just so many breakpoints and return winners. It was hard to get the rhythm. There weren't too many long rallies then all of a sudden you would
have one. I had to get down to business and try and work my way through it though. I thought I kept my composure well."
Wozniacki defeated Simona Halep to make it to the quarter-finals.
Tags: