Yanina Wickmayer surprises Ana Ivanovic in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia
13th seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia suffered an upset loss at the hands of the world number 24, Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Wednesday. Wickmayer toiled for two hours and ten minutes before concluding the three-set thriller at 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-3, to move on to the third round of the $2,050,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay-court event.
The back-and-forth affair exhibited brilliant tennis skills from the two contestants, with the Belgian finally coming out as the winner. Both players were playing against each other for the first time and looked unfamiliar with the game play of their opponent. A number of major momentum swings were witnessed in the game and the contest was extended to third set.
“In the first set I wasn’t playing badly, Ana was just more aggressive on the big points,” Wickmayer said after concluding victory against the Serb opponent, “I had some chances early on but didn’t take them, but late in the second set I was the one playing more aggressive, serving a little better, moving into the court. It was harder for her to win points against me.”
Ivanovic had a blistering start to the opener and registered an early serve break to get the upper hand in the contest. Wickmayer held just two of her games before she suffered a second break point from the Serb opponent, who sealed the first set at 6-2 to get one up in the game.
The 13th seed kept her winning momentum in the following set as well but this time Wickmayer was up to the task. She replied Ivanovic’s attacking maneuvers with aggression and stung her first serve break of the contest to level the scores at 6-6 to enforce a decisive tie breaker round. The Belgian was trailing 1-3 in the tie breaker when a sudden momentum shift took place and Wickmayer reeled off six out of seven next points to bag the second set at 7-6(4). Four double faults from Ivanovic in the second set assisted her opponent to take the better of her.
It all came down to the third set and Wickmayer wasted no time to get into lead early. She struck two serve breaks in the third set to ease her road t victory and eventually finished off the contest at 6-3. 12 doubles faults were conceded by Ivanovic which eventually wore her out in the game.
Up next for Wickmayer is the ultimate challenge, as she has to compete against the world number one player, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the third round. Wozniacki was successful against Anastasia Rodionova of Australia in straight sets 6-2, 6-0, in the second round clash.
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