Serbian teenager Ana Ivanovic cruised into the second round of the Australian Women's Hard-court tennis championships when she beat Italian qualifier Roberta Vinci 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 in Gold Coast, Australia, yesterday.
The 19-year-old is a crowd favorite here because of her strong Australian connections -- she has family in Melbourne and is coached by Australian Fed Cup captain David Taylor.
The third seed is also one of the glamour girls of women's tennis, but she said she didn't let all the attention affect her game.
"The most pressure I get is from myself because in some ways I'm a perfectionist," she said. "I expect myself to play good each game, which is not possible every time and you have to win even if you don't play good."
"There is always the pressure from outside. I'm still young and still have many things to achieve in my career," she said.
Ivanovic started slowly against Vinci and needed a tiebreaker to win the first set before using her superior power to demolish the Italian in the second set.
"The first match of the season is always tough, especially after two months break," Ivanovic said.
Ivanovic will play Venezuela's Milagros Sequera in the second round.
Italian Tathiana Garbin caused the day's big upset when she downed fourth seed Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, while Israeli fifth seed Shahar Peer was too good for US player Meghann Shaughnessy 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 and sixth seed Li Na of China beat Czech qualifer Sandra Zahlavova 6-0, 6-4.
Myskina's toe woes
Russian former world No. 2 Anastasia Myskina is likely to miss the Australian Open after a toe injury flared again in her first round loss to Argentina's Gisela Dulko in the first round of the Auckland Classic yesterday.
The former French Open champion needed treatment during the second set for her toe in her first match since October before Dulko won 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2.
"I still feel pain there and it bothers me," Myskina said after the match. "Maybe I'm going to take a longer break."
The world's 16th ranked player later told tournament officials she was planning to head back to Moscow, rather than to Sydney for next week's Medibank International ahead of the Australian Open, starting on Jan. 15.
The 25-year-old Muscovite struggled with her serve and made too many unforced errors.
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