Victoria Azarenka vs. Ana Ivanovic: Fourth round preview – Wimbledon Championships 2012
Two former world number one contenders, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, are about to feature one of the most awaited brawl of the current season on Monday afternoon. The two beauty queens of tennis will go one-on-one in the fourth round battle at the Wimbledon Championships.
The highly awaited contest will be played on the coveted Centre Court of the All England Tennis and Croquet Club in London, with the winner of the match getting a berth in the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam event.
There have been already some breath-taking encounters in this year’s Wimbledon Championships and fans have seen a number of upsets in the tournament so far. However, Azarenka vs. Ivanovic is something more than just any other match. The Belarusian tennis ace rose to her prime form at the start of the 2012 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) by winning her maiden Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open but she was deprived off her world number one spot by the slender-legged Russian diva, Maria Sharapova, after she claimed the French open gold. Azarenka is out there in London to reclaim her top spot from Sharapova and she will throw out her best at Ivanovic to enter the final-eight of the draw.
On the other hand, the Serbian beauty has been battling extremely hard to get back her vintage form this season but her title drought still prevails. The 24-year-old won her only Grand Slam title at the 2008 French Open and has never featured any Major final since then. The best run she had at Wimbledon was in 2007 when she reached the semi-final stages. The Serbian has never gone past the fourth round of a Grand Slam event since 2008 and looking at her current form, it doesn't seem much convincing that she can do it this time as well.
Ivanovic is 23-12 in this season, without any championship title to her name whilst the reigning world number two, Azarenka, has won 41 out of the 45 matches she played in the current year, bagging four championship titles. The Serbian is certainly holding the 14th spot in the WTA Premier Rankings, suggesting that it will take some real effort from her to topple the second seeded Belarusian on Monday.
The head-to-head series between these two former top-ranked players is levelled at 2-2, with the most recent encounter being won by the Belarusian. She outsmarted Ivanovic in twin sets, 6-4, 6-4, in the round of 16 of the Mutua Madrid Open earlier this season and desires to repeat the similar feat on the grass courts of the All England Club as well.
None of these contestants have played against each other on a grass court and Azarenka’s two victories have come on the sluggish clay surface. The only time they faced one another on a faster hard court, Ivanovic came out as the winner. So can the Serbian hunt down Azarenka on the fastest of the all types of courts in London? Well it can be anyone’s game on Sunday afternoon but the second seed Azarenka will still remain the hot favourite for her superior rankings and sublime form. A three-setter is expected between the two contenders, with the Belarusian winning in the end.
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