Ana Ivanovic followed up her 6-2 6-0 victory over Sorana Cirstea in the first round with a 6-3 6-2 triumph over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova at the Generali Ladies Linz. The match will be remembered for an unusual incidenent that happened over a bathroom break – Ivanovic asked to go to the toilet and the umpire gave her the permission to do so, but when she came back to the court she found out she had lost a game because of the time spent away (one point for each 20-second absence, which was summed up to four points, which is one game). It was the second game of the match, Zahlavova Strycova’s service game. Ivanovic was angry at the umpire but it turned out that the umpire’s decision was legitimate as a player should use such a break only before their own serve and not their opponent’s serve.
In the other part of the world, at the tournament in Osaka, Japanese No.1 Kimiko Date Krumm advanced to the quarterfinals with a decisive 6-2 6-0 victory over good friend Aiko Nakamura. Date Krumm won all the games from 3-2 in the first set. The sixth-seeded Japanese will next play top seed Samantha Stosur, who is defending her title. It will be their first career meeting and Date Krumm’s seventh match against a Top 10 player – she won just one of the previous six but four of her five losses were three-setters. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)
What on earth is with these umpires? Serena Williams took also a long bathroom break at the AO and nobody told her a thing. Such a ridiculous thing to do. No wonder Ana was ticked off. But on the other hand maybe that motivated her to lift her game in the second set. Cirstea was the one punished in the end…:-)
Marine, Ana said that the anger gave her extra energy to win. And no confusion, Cirstea was in the last round, this match was against Zahlavova Strycova. 😉
I heard about this! Actually, the chair umpire never “allowed” her to go on break, however she desperately needed to go because she ate yogurt right before the match. The umpire did not warn her in advance, which was not fair to so extent! Her press conference was pretty funny — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGA76H-fheI
Cheers Marija! Great job on keeping the tennis world updated!
Hey, Ana also won today against Goerges. I watched and it was a fantastic match. Hopefully she will win this one, it would be great for her confidence.
Bb, thanks for all the support and for sharing the link for the press conference.
Marine, yeah, and now she reached the final! I’m sorry I didn’t have time to write about the win against Goerges.