Ana Ivanovic back in winning circle, beats Elena Dementieva in Rome

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Ana IvanovicI was reluctant to celebrate Ana Ivanovic’s second-round win over ninth seed Victoria Azarenka too much, simply in order not to jinx Ana or put pressure on her (who knows, she might be reading this blog :)), but now I can say it: “Woohoo Ana is back!”.

The Serb defeated sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-1 7-6(5) and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. I was watching just livescores (don’t ask me why), but I am pretty sure Ivanovic didn’t have much trouble in the first set. Actually, in that first set Dementieva didn’t hold serve once and as the result shows won only one game.

The second set was longer and unpredictable. The first four games were breaks of serve, but then they both held serve until 6-6 and tiebreak which Ivanovic won 7-5.

This is Ivanovic’s first victory over Dementieva in their five meetings. Her next opponent on clay in Rome will be seed No.14 Nadia Petrova. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

24 COMMENTS

  1. Svetlana, ok then I’m dumb. When the match started I went to all the channels that possibly broadcast tennis and didn’t see it and then I gave up. I will have to delete that part about blaming Eurosport haha.

  2. I was watching it on Eurosport2, too :).
    It was an unbelievable match by Ana! She was great! Elena helped her a bit in the first set, but then it was such a fight.
    I can say out loud that old Anci is coming back. If I compare this match with some match from 2007/08, I see many similarities. Her agressivity, confidence and desire to win were visible in her game. I am speechless.
    Maybe, she reads this blog, and she sees how much we love her 🙂 maybe that´s a motivation for her 🙂
    Ajde Ana! 🙂

  3. Hehehe 😀

    Sorry you missed it. Ana was great during the entire match, we could say she’s back. She sure was reminiscent of the player she was two years ago.
    Wow, it’s been too long…

  4. Wow, I’m impressed. I was trying to curb my enthusiasm as well as you, Marija, so that I didn’t bring her bad luck but I now can say with a big relief that Ana has got out of the slump and brighter days are ahead of us, fans. Ajde, Ana, the Serbian pride 😛

  5. Marija, so sad you missed the match it was so intense! You could watch it either on atdhe.net or google LiveScoreHunter–It has all the links to her match!

    The second set was Ana’s…she had many opportunities missed, but survived the tiebreak! I am so proud of her!–Speaking of which…why is everyone turning against JJ all of a sudden. Many Serbs are angry at her? Why? I must have missed something, nevertheless both are Serbian jewels and I love them both equally!

    Cheers to Marija and everyone reading–(INCLUDING ANCI!…who probably got her insipration from reading your blog Marija 😉

    My exams were pretty ok…9 more to go :-(((

  6. Bb, no worries, as long as Ana won it’s not a problem I missed it. 🙂 And of course, I’m never turning against JJ, but you probably know it.

    Hey, congrats for your exam, I hope mine will be equally good. 😛

  7. I think I am on cloud 9 right now. Is this really happening? Coming into the tournament, Ana had not had a top 10 win in over 18 months. Now she got back to back top 10 wins. Signs of a comeback. This is so great to see! I just hope she can keep this up and climb back up those rankings. I am so happy right now! Ajdeeee!!!!! 🙂

  8. Curtis, we were discussing a lot here whether Ana should enter smaller tournaments, or play doubles more, or just have a longer break, but what happened was actually the first thing I said about her slump a long time ago, when I said we should just leave her alone and the resurrection would come by itself. I wonder how Ana would explain her comeback.

  9. I think you have a good point, Marija. I have been saying Ana should be playing smaller tournaments and that was her only way back up. But Maybe that is not the case. If she had played Estoril instead of Rome, she wouldn’t of have gotten those two big top 10 wins which were huge for her confidence. The thing I been impressed most with Ana this week is her renewed mental toughness. I think all this winning the past 3 matches is really helping her mental game.

    I am not sure if this is true, but I read that if Ana makes the finals, which is becoming a decent possibility right now, she could rise as high as #32 in the world and has 0 points to defend next week in Madrid. Which means she could be seeded for RG. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but a pathway back to the top could become visible soon. After Wimbledon, she has barely anything to defend. As long as she is getting these big wins, her confidence will continue to rise, she’ll win more matches and climb back up those rankings. I am actually feeling pretty optimistic about Ana’s future. I wasn’t feeling that way a week ago. 🙂

  10. I want to climb the roof of my hostel and shout out, “Ana is back!!”.But I won’t.

  11. Oh Ana. I’m so thrilled that she is FINALLY playing well again. It’s so annoying though because like some of you others I have exams coming up soon and I am getting so distracted by all of this tennis! It feels like 2008 again with Ana and JJ still in the latter stages of the major competitions. Long may it last. Now if only JJ could win against Venus and this would be a really good day tennis wise…

  12. JJ poned Venus…She played amazingly! Wow, Serbian tennis is on a high again!

    JJ won 6=0 6-1!! Venus did not lose 6-0 in a few years! JJ played the tennis of her life…I strongly believe JJ has chances for her first GS this year…she is playing so well. I would bet that she can win Roland Garros with her current form

    GO JJ! YOU CAN BEAT SERENA! I think it will be one of her best achievements if she beats Serena as that would mean she beat both sisters in 2 days! Of course, I do not want to get too ahead of myself, but I think there will be an All-Serbian Final in Rome!

    Marija…I hope u watched the matches on the sites I have given you!

    bb

  13. The Serbians are on fire, well done !!! I thought JJ would top Venus but, geez, she destroyed her in that match. bb, Venus has actually beeen bagelled last year by Kimmie, the superom :-), who eventually won the US Open. I think JJ can beat Serena tomorrow if she goes on playing so well. And Ana is BACK to my huge relief and joy.

  14. The Serbians are on fire, well done !!! I thought JJ would top Venus but, geez, she destroyed her in that match. bb, Venus has actually beeen bagelled last year by Kimmie, the superom :-), who eventually won the US Open. I think JJ can beat Serena tomorrow if she goes on playing so well. And Ana is BACK to my huge relief and joy.

  15. The Serbians are on fire, well done !!! I thought JJ would top Venus but, geez, she destroyed her in that match. bb, Venus has actually beeen bagelled last year by Kimmie, the superom :-), who eventually won the US Open. I think JJ can beat Serena tomorrow if she goes on playing so well. And Ana is BACK to my huge relief and joy.

  16. Late to the party again, I’m thinking of making it a normal habit. 😛

    I think Ana is going to win this tournament-Ms. Marija you know my track record on my predictions hint: March Madness this year- .

    Ana’s victories have been impressive except her win over Azarenka, anyone can beat an injured player. However since I don’t like her I could only give her bad vibes. This tournament it always been weird to me as to whom reaches the semis and finals. A couple of years ago Cornet was a runner up on this tournament and where is she now? Almost outside the top 100 ranking.

    I’m never surprise when the Williams sisters lose on clay is not their forte. When both sisters reached the final of RG 02 I said to myself,”This is the only chance the sisters will have to win this slam, whomever wins it will be the only time”. Sadly I’m been right so far. I don’t consider a major victory to whomever defeats the Williams sisters on clay.

  17. Mara, I have limited time to dedicate to this blog, so I have to make a selection of what to write about. I would love to have been able to cover JJ’s win as well.

    Bb, yesterday I watched tennis all day long, and I didn’t study at all so I ended up being very depressed and in panic and as you may have noticed I didn’t even write my blog yesterday. And about 7 pm my internet as well as my cable TV broke down, and they haven’t worked until now, 2 pm. So, I missed the JJ vs. Venus match, but I watched all the others.

    JJ’s result in the match with Venus is SPECTACULAR, what else can I say. I would never have expected for Venus to win only one game against JJ. Yes, it feels like 2008 again and it feels good. 🙂 Good luck to the Serbian sisters in the semis! 🙂

  18. OMG…THE MATCH WAS SOOOOOO NERVYY! I could not believe it!

    JJ IS THE BESSSSTTTT…beating both sisters in two days!

    The match was simply unbelievable!

    Are we going to see an All-Serbian Final?

    VERRRY POSSIBLE!

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