Kim Clijsters outs Ana Ivanovic to roll into the quarter-finals – London Olympics 2012
World number 12, Ana Ivanovic, failed to register her first head-to-head win in the seventh face-off against her fellow former world number one, Kim Clijsters, on Wednesday. The Belgian superstar trounced over the 11th
seed Serb with straight sets 6-3, 6-4 victory.
The 29-year-old Belgian commenced the match with a serve hold to love and exerted pressure on her rival before failing to grab an early breakthrough. However, she tried her luck for the second time in the fourth game and got rewarded
for her efforts.
Clijsters led the scores 3-1 and punched in another serve hold to love that enhanced her lead to 4-1. Ivanovic looked out of equation for some time and couldn’t find an opening to win the breakpoint back that she lost earlier in
the set.
Both players capitalized on their serves in the remaining part of the set. During the final game, the 24-year-old Serb won two points at the start that hinted at a possibility of a critical breakpoint to keep the set alive but
Clijsters bounced back with four straight points; won the game as well as the set.
The second set witnessed a similar start as the first. Same tragedy happened to the Serb; lost a breakpoint in the third game and drowned to a trail of 1-3. The Belgian kept on piling up the pressure with some thrilling stroke
making and didn’t allow her rival to have any sort of comeback in the match.
With no breakthroughs in the remaining play of the set, Clijsters bagged her third straight win at the Olympics and marched on into the quarter-final stage of the tournament.
At the end of the match Clijsters stated, "It didn't feel easy. At this stage of the tournament you have to fight and you have to play some of your best tennis, and I did. I felt like I was doing a lot of good things out there
today, and served a little bit better during the important points. So overall I'm very pleased with the match. It's actually surprisingly easy. I'm here to play tennis and that's what I'm focusing on. I don't think about it being finished. I'm so used to focusing
on my matches for the last 17, 18 years, and I'll do that until I play my last match.”
Again, two former world number ones will rock the field when the Russian number one, Maria Sharapova, will take on Kim Clijsters for a spot in the last four.
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