2008 Australian Open runner-up and French Open Champions has clawed her way back to a top twenty ranking. The attractive brunette re-built her serve and trained rigorously en route to achieving her top 20 billing , but what Ana Ivanovic is finding is that today’s young women are stronger than ever.

Ana Ivanovic

In the decisive third set, 23-year old Ana Ivanovic saved four match points at 4-5. Her 22-year old Slovakian opponent rallied from a 1-3 deficit by taking the ball early and pasting deep shots down the line and short shots across the court. Despite her 49th ranking, Russian Ekatarina Makarova trusted herself and her game when many challengers migfht have succumbed.

After losng the first set, Makarova began to shy away from Ana’a forceful forehand. She kept the very fit Ivanovic on the move and took advantage of short balls to end points in the 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 fight to the two hour-thirty-seven minute end.

Ana Ivanovic held off another match point at 7-8 but dug a deep hole at 8-9, 15-40. This time Makarova drilled a return down the line to silence the pro-Ivanovic crowd. The last set took more than 1.5 hours.

Vera Zvonareva (2), Kim Clijsters (3), Samantha Stosur (5) advanced with ease. Clijsters methiodically dismantles an error prone Dinara Safina. Jalena Jankovic (7) escaped a gritty third set against another Russian young gunner Alla Kudryavtseva.

12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska overcame a determined effort by Japan’s 40-year old Kimiko Date-Krumm in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 two-hour fifteen minute battle. Date-Kryumm was srving for the match but failed to hold. She seemed to tire after that disappointment and the Pole picked up her intensity and concentration. Date-Krumm had 72 unforced errors in the matc compared to 42 for Radwanska. For Aggie to advance, she will need a quick fix on her intensity. The 12 seed was luck toescape this one.

Sixteen seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won a hard fought match against rising Belgian star Kirtsen Flipkens, 6-, 7-6. The triumph was a good one for the Russian, who is a force appears to be headed to a collision with another Russian number two seed Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round.

Two of the tour’s brightest young starts had a good day. Russian Alisa Kleybanova (24) and Czech Petra Kvitova (26) advanced with ease. Both women were calm and focused in their first round matches.

Nalbandian and Hewitt – True Grit

The last tiome Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian played a match like this was in their quarterfinal pairing at the 2005 Australian Open. Tuesday’s confrontation had the same intensity, the same crowd bravado and a different result. Hewitt claimed that stirring victory in 2005 but Naslbandian has bounced back from knee surgery to resuurect his career and display the same awesome skills.

This time around Nalbandian came back from two sets down to record a dramatic 3-6, 6-4,3-6. 7-6 (1), 9-7 triumph. The packed house at Rod Laver Arena saw a memoprable match between seasoned and fercocious opponents fighting desperately to keep their career paths on track.

27th seed Nalbandian looked to play himself out of the match in the fourth set when he failed to hold at 6-5. The Argentine raloied to dominate the tiebreaker and then rode the momentum to an early break in the fiith set. That break held until Hewitt staged a maasterful break at 5-6 and then fought off two break points at 6-6. At 7-7, Nalbandian finallt claimed aniother break with a beautiful top spin lob that left Hewitt flat-footed. This was the signature men’s match of the first round and the 29-year olds gave it their all. On thos day, a cramped and battle scarred Nalbandian won the battle.

Top seeds Nadal (1), Andy Murray (5), Robin Soderling (5), Marin Cilic (15), Mikkhail Youzhny (10), Jo Willy Tsonga (13), David Ferrer (7) and John Isner all advanced.

Juan Martin Del otro sent a message to interested parties with a soloid win over Israeli veteran Dudio Sela 7-6 (13), 6-4, 6-4. The Argentinean’s serve looke as impressive as always. Juan Martin will be diffiuclt to take out.

Related Articles