Ivanovic faces match point then…
June 26, 2008
Ana Ivanovic has come into Wimbledon with the expectations of the tennis world on her shoulders. She is the new world no. 1 and the top seed.
In the first round Ivanovic strolled into the next stage with a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 win against Rossana De los rios. In the second round she found herself facing a seasoned campaigner in the form of French women Natalie Dechy.
Back in early 2006 Dechy was ranked as high as no. 11 in the world. Since then she has slipped down to her current singles ranking of 97. Her past shows that she is capable of playing some quality tennis. Dechy reached the semi finals at the 2005 Australian Open but I have to say after looking through the past few years of playing history she has not done much since her best year of 2005.
Today the Frenchwoman showed she can handle the power game of Ivanovic. She kept the pressure on the top seed with good all round play. In the first set Dechy surprised all by taking it in a tie break.
In the second set Ivanovic faced two match points before coming back to win the second in another tie break. She was inches away from being out after the net kept her in the match.
The third set was a battle with both girls dropping serve in the middle of the set. The pressure was on as Ivanovic tried to close out the match. She failed when serving at 5-4 up. This match was going the distance.
Ivanovic edged ahead 6-5 and was looking likely to take the match. Dechy had other ideas and saved two match points herself. She then won the game to make it 6-6.
Games went with serve until Dechy found herself serving to stay in the match at 8-9. Two winners and a forced error gave Ivanovic three match points. Dechy saved one. Finally at 40-15 up Ivanovic converted the match point with a winner hit close to the line to take the match. A squeal of delight came from Ivanovic as she knew she had finally won after 3 hours and 24 minutes.
The final score was 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 10-8
A great match from Dechy and a true test of Ivanovic’s fighting spirit. The no. 1 seed will face China’s Jie Zheng in the third round.
Ivanovic has to thank the net cord for keeping her in the Wimbledon tournament after it went her way on a second match point for Dechy in the second set.
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