Top seed Ana Ivanovic opened her 2009 season with a straight-set victory over Petra Kvitova in the first round of the Brisbane International.
The 21-year-old Serb was too strong for her Czech opponent, and scored a comfortable 6-4 6-2 win.
It was Ivanovic’s first match since she split with Sven Groenefeld, the coach who took her to 2008 Roland Garros title.
World No.5 Ivanovic will next face Italian qualifier Roberta Vinci.
I went to see this match in Brisbane last night and Ana looked amazing! It was the first time I saw Ana in real life, and I must say she looks even more stunning in person than in the photos 🙂
She didn’t play that well (it seemed like Petra was hitting harder and dictating the points) but she still managed to win quite comfortably in the end.
Lucky you, Hecto, for being there! Thank you for telling us more about the match. I’m really interested in how Ana will start this new season.
When I saw Ana in person, she looked exactly the same, although I saw her from not so small distance.
Dear Marija,
I am usually impressed with your objective, non-biased commentary on the details of these crucial matches but simply describing Ana’s performance as ‘comfortable’ and her presence being ‘too strong’ is quite slanted. After only achieving 61% of her first serves in and otherwise almost none on her second serve, even she had to admit:
“I had to fight for each point and you know that’s good, especially in the first match. You want to get into your rhythm and you want to stay tough for each point,” and “She was a tough opponent for a first round — she likes to hit the ball very flat.
That did not sound entirely comfortable.
Zuleika, I’m glad you like my work, at least generally. 🙂
This match was not broadcast on our TV, although I hoped it would be so I woke up to watch it. Hence, I read what others wrote about the match, and Sporting Life, which I named as the source, wrote exactly this “was too strong for her Czech opponent and ran out a comfortable 6-4 6-2 winner”. And I believed them, which was apparently my mistake.
However, that is why we have blogs and comments, so that everyone can add to the conversation and write their opinion. I’m really thankful that you and Hecto gave me and all the readers of Women’s Tennis Blog better insight into the match.
Dear Marija,
Well actually I think you’ve done a phenomenal job with /www.womenstennisblog.com/, particularly when it’s a part-time project; good luck and keep up the great work even if that means not solely trusting Sporting Life or Courier Mail!
Dear Zuleika,
Thank you very much for your encouragement! I work hard to make this blog as good and as accurate as possible, and I hope it shows, but sometimes we all make mistakes. But as I said, you can always express your opinion, and readers’ opinion is what makes blogs richer and better. You can always add to the article, or correct it if you think it’s not very good, like you did in this case. That’s welcome.
Thank you once again for supporting Women’s Tennis Blog!
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