Ana Ivanovic has a chance to celebrate her 24th birthday by defending her Bali title, having advanced to the final by defeating Nadia Petrova despite a set point against her in the second set. Her opponent in the title match will be Anabel Medina Garrigues whose second straight opponent retired from the match injured. Hopefully she will not bring bad luck to Ivanovic, who has already had an injury scare because of a fall in Bali quarterfinals.
Ivanovic started the match by losing only three points in the first four games and after winning the set the Serb held three points for a 3-0 lead in the second set. That was when Petrova’s comeback started, Ivanovic was throwing herself to the ground in entertaining rallies and the Russian even had a set point at 5-4. However, Ivanovic held for 5-5 and finished off the match 6-1 7-5.
Medina Garrigues said she didn’t have many retirement victories in her life, but in Bali all her victories in the eight-women field came via retirements. In the quarterfinals it was top seed Marion Bartoli pulling out with an ankle injury, and now in the semifinals Sabine Lisicki retired at 6-3 4-6 4-0 with a back injury. Lisicki took painkillers before the match and despite having great will to continue, after having treatment in the second set and taking the match to the decider, she ran out of gas and ended her participation in Bali. (photos: Robertus Pudyanto)
Ana is playing really well in this tournament! Look at these highlights against Vinci, it is like a flashback from the good ole days 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAK4a53BsmI