Action began at the season-ending tournament of Bali, and unlike at the let’s call it Premier season-ending tournament of Istanbul, the Bali eight-women draw doesn’t have the round-robin format preceding the semifinals, but rather regular quarterfinals, semifinals and the title match. Therefore, after the first day of action we already have one semifinal pair: Ana Ivanovic and Nadia Petrova.
Ivanovic served up a 6-3 6-3 victory over Roberta Vinci, the player with whom she made cookies for charity as a pre-tournament activity to raise funds for UNICEF’s education projects in Asia-Pacific. In her seventh career match with Vinci, defending champion Ivanovic was aggressive and played well.
However, Ivanovic fell in the beginning of the second set and received treatment for her ankle, but hopefully the injury is not serious. We have every reason to believe so as Ivanovic rushed through the second set against Vinci.
Petrova took out Peng Shuai 6-4 6-3 despite going up and down, dropping serve four times and having problems with upper back, which she overcame by adrenaline and the will to win.
The other two quarterfinals will take place on Friday: Marion Bartoli vs. Anabel Medina Garrigues and Sabine Lisicki vs. Daniela Hantuchova. (photos courtesy of Robertus Pudyanto)
