Romina Oprandi sidelines Ana Ivanovic to reach the quarter-final – China Open 2012
World number 69, Romina Oprandi, sidelined the former world number one, Ana Ivanovic, in the third round of the China Open on Wednesday. She trashed the Serb in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 taking an hour and 11 minutes at the hard courts
of Beijing.
The 26-year-old Swiss is enjoying her time out and cruising along pretty well at the moment. The way she outmuscled the 24-year-old Serb was pretty cruel. She completely dismantled Ivanovic and didn’t allow her to take a sigh of
relief throughout the encounter; always coming at her from awkward angles and making her life difficult.
Ivanovic was under the cosh right from the word go. She was tested in the opening serve game but did well to deny any early advantage to her foe. On the other hand, the 69th ranked underdog cruised along with four straight
points and equalized the scores.
Both players didn’t bow for the first six games of the match. However, the turnaround in the proceedings was witnessed when the swap of breakpoints was coupled with another breakthrough for the Swiss professional. She took the
lead in the most critical phase of the set and made no mistake in stamping her authority with a comfortable serve hold.
Trailing a set down, Ivanovic needed a good start but she couldn’t hold her serve in the first game and failed to fight back. She trailed 0-2 and almost went down three games but the timely recovery saved her day. She couldn’t
handle the pressure and her backhand shots were hitting the net more often.
Oprandi capitalized on the lead and bagged the encounter; received some praise from Ivanovic in the following manner, “Romina's a tricky opponent - she has really good hands and is a very talented girl. I really struggled to find
my rhythm out there, especially on the forehand. The ball wasn't coming with much pace and I wasn't really efficient in moving forward and taking advantage of that. I always felt I was lacking a little step here and there, and I wasn't adjusting very well.”
Romina Oprandi plays Victoria Azarenka if Elena Vesnina fails to register an upset.
Tags: