Serena Williams overcomes Ana Ivanovic in the quarter-finals – US Open 2012
World number four, Serena Williams battled past Ana Ivanovic in the quarter-finals of the US Open 2012 held at the hard courts of Flushing Meadows. The American number one prevailed over her rival by 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday’s
eve.
Williams commenced the initial set with her classic game plan and led the score line throughout. She successfully broke her rival’s serve in the second game and confidently clinched the first three games to mark a 3-love
lead. To her surprise, the 12th seeded Serbian grabbed a score by the fourth game but unfortunately, she could not progress any further. Williams nailed a serve break in the second last game and concluded the opening set with a 6-1
score.
The American veteran fired Ivanovic with six aces and she had low initial serve precision of 58 percent in the opener. She not managed to pocket away 13 of 14 points and two of four break points presented to her. In comparison
to this, the 24-year-old Serbian could not even smash a single ace but also played with a very low initial serve of 41 percent. She managed to get hold of four out of seven points and was unable to attain a single break point.
The following set indicated a similar pattern but this time around, the former world number one Serbian tried her best to come at even terms with the number four seed American. Williams broke her opponent’s serve twice, initially
in the third game and eventually in the last game of the set. By the end of the seventh game, Ivanovic brought the score line 3-4, however Williams nudged past her to close the match with her 6-3 win.
Williams keep the same momentum in the set number two and she shelled the right-hander Serbian with six aces. Both the contenders had an average first serve precision but the American secured the lead by snatching 13 of 15
points on it. On the contrary, Ivanovic only converted 10 of 16 points and was unable to clutch even a chance of registering a break point.
The 2012 Olympic gold medallist, Williams takes on the head-to-head series a 4-0 lead. Last year at the US Open, Williams gave the 16th seeded Serbian a straight sets upset at the fourth round of the
Grand Slams.
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