Top seed Ana Ivanovic won an epic battle against France’s Nathalie Dechy in Wimbledon second round. The Serb saved two match points as she battled to a 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3) 10-8 victory.
World No.1 Ivanovic had a 5-2 lead in the first set, but in the end the tie-break was played and Dechy won it 7-2. Ivanovic’s struggle continued in the second set with the top seed facing two match points when serving at 4-5 down. The third set was also tough, but Ivanovic survived and clinched victory in three hours and 24 minutes.
The most thrilling moment was on world No.97 Dechy’s second match point when Ivanovic’s shot thumped into the net and just when it seemed that it would fall back towards her, the ball rolled over into her opponent’s side of the court. After the match Ivanovic kissed the part of the net that saved her existence at Wimbledon.
“My heart skipped a beat because the ball was in the air for a while and I didn’t know where it was going to bounce,” said Ivanovic, who was a favorite heading into the encounter with Dechy.
As the top seed, she should have won that 2nd round comfortably. I was rooting for her opponent, too bad that lucky netcord saved her from near embarrassment! Novak’s out and if Ana had followed his steps, that would have been great! I will still dance for celebration because Marat just kicked out the wanna-be Novak so early in the tournament!
I saw the third set of Ana’s match and thought it was her backhand that let her down. She seemed to have trouble getting the low bouncing ball back over the net.
Her forehand was okay and she served well apart from a couple of games mid set. If she had served well in those games she would probably have won the set 6-3 or 6-4.
Wimbledon is a grave-yard for champions…Novak is out but my girl is still rollin’…u’re my girl…
(I will kiss the net in stead of u next time if u want, just keep winning…)
The way I see it, it was a case of Dechy losing the match rather than Ana winning it. It seemed like so much luck was on her side. Congratulations for incredible play to Dechy, you almost dumped her out!