Today is the day of Ivanovic’s breakthrough quarterfinal

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Eighteen Grand Slams after her last Grand Slam quarterfinal in 2008 when she went all the way to the title at Roland Garros, Ana Ivanovic is finally in another Grand Slam quarterfinal and actually her first ever at the US Open.

To advance to the last eight Ivanovic even produced one bagel against Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-0 6-4. Pironkova, the 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist, held serve just once in the match and Ivanovic converted all seven of her seven break points. Even though troubled by a neck injury, Pironkova made a fightback in the second set, including breaking Ivanovic when she was serving for the match, but the Serb broke back immediately to ensure progress.

Ivanovic’s quarterfinal opponent is Serena Williams and Ivanovic’s knees must be shaky. Why? Serena’s US Open win-loss record is 62-9, her 2012 record is 50-4, she won her previous four matches with scores 6-1 6-1, 6-2 6-4, 6-4 6-0 and 6-0 6-0 in the fourth round against Andrea Hlavackova, while her career record against Ivanovic is 3-0 (all straight-set wins) and two of those victories came at the US Open. I had my hopes high for Ivanovic to finally come back to the quarterfinal stage of a Grand Slam, but this obstacle, I’m afraid, she’ll not overcome.

Other quarterfinal pairs: Victoria Azarenka (1) vs. Samantha Stosur (7), Maria Sharapova (3) vs. Marion Bartoli (11) and Sara Errani (10) vs. the winner of the match between Roberta Vinci (20) and Agnieszka Radwanska (2).(photo: © Neal Trousdale)

4 COMMENTS

  1. “Ivanovic’s knees must be shaky”: I think that it’s an understatement! I really hope that she will offer good resistance and even more… but secretly, I’m just wondering how many games she will manage to win.

  2. I have watched a few of Ana’s matches and she impressed me quite a bit. She no longer panics when things go wrong and is really a lot more focused. I think that she can give Williams a run for her money here. She can just play freely because all eyes will be on Serena.

  3. Hopefully, because below Williams there will be “only” an Italian. Quite a boulevard for Serena to Saturday night…

  4. Well, there are many surprises at grand slam, so she can still be beaten along the way. I doubt that Ana will defeat her although I expect a good match.

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