First Maria now Ana out at Wimbledon

June 28, 2008

In the second round at Wimbledon we saw Maria Sharapova take an early exit after losing to countrywoman Alla Kudryavtseva. Now in another shock result, or was it? world no. 1 Ana Ivanovic has been bundled out of Wimbledon.

Ivanovic was up against Chinese wildcard Zheng Jie who is currently ranked 133 in the world. This is not a true indication of her ability as she missed most of 2007 through injury and was up to no. 27 in August 2006.

My wife, who is Chinese, said to me that it is unfair that Zheng should play the world no. 1. I said to her that after Ivanovic previous round’s match that Zheng was in with a chance against the no. 1 seed.

I must admit I was not expecting such a one sided first set. It ended up going to the hard hitting Chinese player 6-1. Ivanovic admitted after the match that she had trouble adjusting to the hitting style of Zheng. The Chinese girl is relatively short and hits the ball flat and hard. On grass this is hard to handle. A string of unforced errors from Ivanovic also made it easier for Zheng.

In the second set Ivanovic worked hard to get back into the match. She would have felt she could repeat the comeback win she completed in the second round. Ivanovic did play better however she was not solid enough against Zheng. Perhaps a change of tactics was called for.

Zheng did not let Ivanovic back into the match and the result was that we farewell the no. 1 player in the women’s world of tennis from Wimbledon.

Zheng is a past doubles champion having won the title in 2006. Her win in the third round surpasses her best ever Wimbledon singles result which was a third round appearance in 2006.

The Williams sisters probably now would come to mind when thinking of who might claim the 2008 Wimbledon title. Jelana Jankovic or Svetlana Kuznetsova should also be considered.

Zheng will face 15th seeded Agnes Szavay from Hungary in the next round. The winner will book a quarterfinal place against either Russia’s 8th seed Anna Chakvetadze or Czech Republic’s 18th seeded Nicole Vaidisova.

Written by rob · Filed Under Wimbledon 2008 

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