Ana Ivanovic comes from behind to beat Daniela Hantuchova and reach Australian Open final

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Wilson Blade 9

Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic reached her second career Grand Slam final after ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova let slip a 6-0 2-0 lead to eventually lose 0-6 6-3 6-4. Hantuchova was annoyed with Ivanovic’s behavior during the match and accused the Serb of intentionally distracting her in serving by squeaking with her feet.

Only after 45 minutes did Ivanovic take her first game, but then she settled and took the second set 6-3. The third set went with serve until 4-4 when three errors from the Slovak helped Ivanovic to break, and the Serb closed things out 6-4.

Hantuchova criticized Ivanovic of using tactics to distract her. As Hantuchova was preparing to serve Ivanovic was shuffling her feet which resulted in loud squeaking.

“That was ridiculous, I think,” said Hantuchova.

“I was really surprised with that. I think it’s unfair. It’s a distraction to the server. We played before and she never did it.

Ivanovic, however, claimed she wasn’t doing that intentionally and put the blame on the surface.

“I just tried to move my feet, to return the ball, so it really was not intentional,” the Roland Garros finalist explained.

“If you see other matches I was doing exactly the same thing. It’s just the way these courts play. And if you listen to the guys I think they’re doing the same thing.”

In Saturday’s final Ana Ivanovic will face fifth seed Maria Sharapova, last year’s Australian Open runner-up, who beat third seed Jelena Jankovic in the earlier semifinal.

3 COMMENTS

  1. I think that Daniela became quite petty about this, which was rather unprofessional manner…
    Anyway, I’m glad that Ana managed to come back into the game after the first set. She gathered up and achieved a deserved victory, and I hope she will do her best at the final.
    Good luck! 😉

  2. I think daniela lost on court and out.I can understand she was frustrated by the deafeat but she couldn’t take these thougths for herself.
    Ana has been doing all those movements with her feet in all the tournment and no one complained about that.and i’m not sure daniela would have talked about that if she had won.a pity for her!

  3. A great match but it was torture listening to the commentary from Martina on the Tennis Channel. Could she please shut up for 5 seconds? She blathered on after the serve so many times I had to mute the match!

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