The former World number one, Ana Ivanovic, has reached the fourth round of the United States Open tennis tournament 2010 for the first time after a period of three years on Friday. The Serbian comfortably got past the world number 157, Virginie Razzano, from France in a total of two sets in the third round in New York. The final match score was 7-5, 6-0.
Ivanovic, as a result of this victory, will next meet the defending U.S Open Champion, Kim Clijsters, in her next round clash.
Ana reached the top World ranking by WTA back in 2008 after capturing the clay court French Open title, one of three major finals the Serbian has reached. However, a series of back-to-back injuries along with her erratic game dropped Ana all the way to number sixty-five back in July. The Basel resident is currently ranked number 40 in the World.
The United States Open is the only Grand Slam championship where Ana has never made it into the quarter finals. In order to make it happen this time, the twenty-two year old Serbian will have to surpass the second seeded Belgian, Kim Clijsters, in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows. Clijsters reached round four after defeating Petra Kvitova in straight sets on Friday. The final match score was 6-3, 6-0.
In other action on Friday, the twelfth seeded Elena Dementieva hammered down Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets. The final match score was 7-5, 6-2.
Elena trailed 5-2 in the opening set versus the twenty-sixth ranked Daniela from Slovakia, however, she fought back to grab eleven of the next thirteen games to record a comprehensive victory.
"I think I started off the match a bit slowly. The centre court is much quicker as compared to the outside surfaces and it took me some time to get familiar with the court”, said the 2004 United States Open runner up.
Elena prevented a total of three set points in the opening match, proving why the Russian has been one of the most reliable top ranked players on the tour over the last ten years.
She made her way into the US Open final round back in 2004 and the semi finals back in 2000 as well as 2008. Her victory sets up a quarter final clash with the fifth seeded Samantha Stosur.
"I wanted to win the opening set as it is good for your confidence and you play the second set much more actively. I just tried to grab every single point and that was the key of the match. I felt much more confident in the second set and as a result played more aggressively,” said Elena after her Friday’s battle.
Hanchucova, on the other hand was extremely disappointed after the defeat as she has won only a total of four matches out of fifteen against Elena and has lost nine of their previous ten clashes.
The early promise that Daniela showed in her professional life has hardly materialized at major events. At nineteen years of age, she made her way into the quarter final rounds of three straight major tournaments, at the 2002 Wimbledon and the United States Open, and the 2003 hard court Australian Open tennis tournament. The Russian has surpassed the round of sixteen on a single occasion, a semi final run at the Australian Open tennis championship back in 2008.
Dementieva started off the season quite convincingly with two straight tournament victories. However, a calf injury later pushed her to withdraw from the French Open as well as Wimbledon.
She was dropped out of the top ten, on the very first occasion in three years, last month. However, she is once again looking to regain her lost rhythm and form, which should make for an exciting quarter final clash at Flushing Meadows.
While commenting on her next round foe, Stosur, the Russian said, “I think it is going to be a really tough clash for sure. We have not faced each other since long and Stosur has really improved her game over the last few months and has been performing quite well this year”.
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