Generali Ladies Linz 2010: Ana Ivanovic beats Patty Schnyder to end her title drought
The Serbian tennis sensation, Ana Ivanovic ended her two-year title drought as she won the 2010 Generali Ladies Linz crown, after knocking out Patty Schnyder in a two setter clash on Sunday. The final match score was 6-1, 6-2 while the clash concluded in
forty seven minutes at Linz.
The seventh seed Ana played some great tennis right from the start of the tournament and made her way into the final without even losing a single set. It was her first title battle appearance since Indian Wells last year in March. Both of them came into
the match at four all in their head to head encounters; however, the twenty two year old Serbian did well to seal victory in the end.
Patty, who had defeated three straight seeds to advance into the final, was appearing in her third career title battle. She had previously ended as finalist back in 2005 as well as 2007. However, she was no match for Ana, who immediately took a lead of 6-1,
5-0 and closed it out comfortably, hitting an ace in the end.
Ana was coming off her China Open appearance at Beijing, where she had defeated her French opponent, Marion Bartoli in the opening round, followed by her straight set victory over Elena Dementieva on the second occasion, this season. In the quarters, this
Basel resident however was toppled by the new number one, Caroline Wozniacki. As a result of her quarter final run, the right hander jumped into the top thirty WTA rankings, while being number twenty six in the world.
The Serbian, after the match, said, "Patty is always a tough opponent and I did not expect this kind of match score. I had confidence from my last few clashes and that helped me stay aggressive. I took a lot of risks and stepped in a lot. I believed in my
shots and made them count, and I am very happy with that."
Despite being a seeded player, Ana came to Linz as a wild card entrant when the world number two, Serena Williams pulled out of the tournament at the last moment. The late arrival however didn’t affect her game and form.
Schnyder, when asked about Ana’s game after losing, stated, "She was playing well from the start, taking the ball so early, not even smashing winners all the time, however hitting it so early. She knew what she was doing on every shot and she can beat anybody
if she plays like that. I needed some help but there was not really a lot of help for me out there."
The Belgrade born Ivanovic was one of the twenty contenders in WTA history to reach the top rankings. However, the Serbian has been struggling to find her top level of game over the past two years. This season, she has shown some glimpses of it so far and
despite dropping down in rankings to as low as number sixty five; this trophy will surely improve her rankings up in the 20s. She has so far reached a total of three semi finals in 2010, at Rome, Brisbane and Cincinnati.
In the doubles action, the second seed duo of Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Renata Voracova were upset by Katarina Srebotnik and Kveta Peschke in the finals in two sets on Sunday. The score line was 7-5, 7-6(6). The clash was stretched to a time period
of one hundred and fifteen minutes at Linz.
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