Anne Keothavong vanquishes Ana Ivanovic in second round – Luxembourg Open 2011
British qualifier Anne Keothavong stole the limelight after stunning a former world number one, Ana Ivanovic in straight sets at the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open 2011, a WTA International tier-III event taking place on the indoor
hard courts of Luxembourg City in Luxembourg. She registered a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the 23-year-old Serb to book a quarter-final spot on Thursday.
28-year-old British veteran put up a solid display of tennis to upset fifth seeded Serb on their first duel. She required one hour and fourteen minutes to not only advancing further in this US$220,000 event but also inched towards
her maiden title.
World number twenty-three, Ivanovic stormed into the opening set and after unleashing exquisite forehands from her box of tricks, she earned the desiderated break in the second game.
After Keothavong was 3-0 down, she turned the table around and went on a six games tear to clinch the opener with a 6-3 score line. She saved one out of two breakpoints faced and capitalised on three out of eight breakpoint opportunities
to her advantage.
The qualifier repeated her mistakes and lost an early serve in the third game to go 2-1 down. However, she went into savage mode again to reel off next five games in a row and dumped the seed out of Luxembourg. She warded off one
out of two breakpoints came across and cashed in on all three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage, sealing the deal with a 6-2 score line.
"It's the first time we've played each other. I played well," blooming Keothavong said after the match. "It was a bit of a difficult match to play. She works with Nigel Sears now, who last year when I made the semifinals here was
working with me."
Keothavong will square off against the Dutch qualifier Bibiane Schoofs for her quarterfinal match on Friday.
"Bibi had a good win today. She also came through qualifying," the British woman said. "I'm expecting another tough match and I can't take anything for granted. I've never made the final of a WTA event. I've got to take it one
match at a time, but if I can do it, it'd be wonderful."
The Dutch woman shocked Canadian Rebecca Marino, who upset second seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the opening round, in a three set thriller.
23-year-old Dutch lost her serve three times but broke Marino’s serve four times to bag the match with a 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 score line in one hour and thirty-six minutes.
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