Finally! I think we can say that today Ana Ivanovic made a career milestone! The 2008 French Open champion eliminated Maria Sharapova from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in the third round and here’s why the win is so huge:
- It was a decisive 6-1 6-4 score;
- Sharapova had won her 12 previous matches on the surface;
- Sharapova had boasted a 46-3 win-loss record on clay since the 2011 French Open, with all the three losses all coming from Serena Williams;
- Sharapova’s record in Rome included 16 straight wins;
- Sharapova’s overall record in Rome was 21-2;
- Ivanovic hadn’t defeated Sharapova in their seven previous meetings, i.e. in almost seven years;
- Sharapova is Ivanovic’s fellow French Open champion.
The list can go on but the key is that we hadn’t expected Ivanovic to win, at least not as decisively, since Sharapova is the hottest claycourt player right now, besides the mighty Serena Williams. Moreover, they have recently faced each other in the final of Stuttgart and Sharapova triumphed 3-6 6-4 6-1.
Sharapova will now take a week off before the French Open, while Ivanovic is awaiting Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarterfinals, another big claycourt opponent. We done Ana! (photo: Jimmie48)
Wow! A HUGE win for Ana. This is really turning out to be a super year for her if she keeps going like this. I could see her in the top-5 by the end of the year but we’re only on the halfway, of course. Maybe I shouldn’t get ahead of myself, it’s still Ana we’re talking about…
Tenniz-fan, don’t set your hopes too high! 🙂
James, you know, I started writing all the achievements in one paragraph, but it turned out to be too confusing and I’m a huge fan of easy-to-read writing, so I thought that bullets were a great option. 🙂
Ana need this and we all need it as well.
Hopefully she can move through to SF and play against Serena. Then we know where Ana’s level right now. We know she can produce a great performance but consistent always the main problem.
Ajde Ana!!!!
An amazing win for Ana Ivanovic!
If you love the WTA please follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/GregWoodWTA and read my blog. I put a lot of time and effort into it but I don’t have many followers!
Ooo bringing out the bullet points, Marija 😉
Huge, huge win for Ana. This year feels so different for her. Excited to see what she can do at RG although still remaining a little cautious!
Stellar and rock solid performance from Ivanovic to defeat an exhausted and erratic Sharapova.
Some impressive streaks from the russian were indeed affected but that’s it, nothing changes at all, this is still just a round of 16 of a tournament, not the final. As inconsistent and unreliable as Ivanovic is, I hope we don’t come across her being defeated in 2 sets by Suarez Navarro in the next round, as that would be typical of her. Since she did the most difficult, it would be nice to see her lifting the trophy.
Serena still in her way though, Marcel.
You can’t ignore that.
its all depend how you perform on that day, records are history and can’t help you to win. Ivanovic play 100 times better than Sharapova and she diserve this big win.
I hope Maria capture her second crown in Paris. #GOMARIA