Facing two match points and a shock elimination, Ana Ivanovic suddenly rediscovered her game yesterday to hold off Italian Roberta Vinci and reach the Brisbane International quarter-finals.
Top-seeded Ivanovic advanced 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-1 over the 82nd-ranked Vinci and next faces former No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, who endured a marathon three-set win over fellow Frenchwoman Julie Coin.
Ivanovic was down a set and gave Vinci double matchpoint at 15-40 in the 10th game of the second.
PHOTO: AP
The 21-year-old Serb put everything into her serve and ground strokes and forced enough errors from Vinci to stay in the game.
She pulled back to 5-5, broke Vinci and then served out to love, leveling at a set apiece.
She then won nine of the first 10 points to set the tone for the 27-minute deciding set, racing to a 5-0 lead.
PHOTO: AP
Ivanovic, who spent 12 weeks at No. 1 last season, also struggled at times in her first-round win over Petra Kvitova — her first match of the season — and was pushed to the wire by Vinci, a qualifier for the main draw.
She hadn’t dropped a set in two previous wins over the Italian.
But that streak was soon ended. After fending off four set points in the ninth game of the opening set, then recovering a break, Ivanovic was outplayed in the tiebreaker.
PHOTO: AP
Ivanovic, who lost the final of the Australian Open to Maria Sharapova last year and then won the French Open, was teetering on being the second major casualty of the inaugural Brisbane tournament.
Men’s top seed Novak Djokovic, also a Serb, was bundled out in the first round.
Instead, she’ll meet 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Mauresmo in Pat Rafter Arena today.
PHOTO: AFP
Mauresmo recovered from 2-5 down in the third set to beat Coin 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (11) in her longest ever tour match.
The 29-year-old Mauresmo saved three match points and need five of her own in the three-hour, 14-minute second-round win over 95th-ranked Coin, who only got a place in draw when Maria Kirilenko pulled out.
“I felt it was long, so long,” said Mauresmo, whose previous longest match in 13 years on tour was 3:07 in her win over Mary Pierce at the WTA Championships final in 2005. “It’s tough. I’m tight everywhere. A lot of work for my physio.”
Mauresmo double-faulted on her first match point at 6-4 in the tiebreaker. She had served for the first set at 5-4, but was broken twice.
In the end, fifth-seeded Mauresmo converted five of her 20 breakpoint chances and fended off 11 of 15 she faced.
In an earlier second-round match, Italy’s Sara Errani beat Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-3.
On the men’s side, Ernests Gulbis lost 6-3, 6-4 to Paul-Henri Mathieu a day after upsetting top-seeded Djokovic.
Mathieu was one of three Frenchman advancing. No. 6-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was broken three times in the first set but recovered to beat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 0-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5) and set up a quarter-final with another Frenchman, seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet.
Florent Serra beat Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-3.
Second-seeded Tsonga, who lost last year’s Australian Open final to Djokovic, found his range with his powerful forehand in the second and third sets and overturned the result of his only previous match with Nieminen — a loss in the semi-finals at Adelaide last year.
Third-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain beat Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-2, 6-3.
■HOPMAN CUP
AP, PERTH,AUSTRALIA
James Blake’s bid for a third Hopman Cup title will have to wait after the US yesterday slumped out of contention with a 2-1 loss to Germany.
Blake beat Nicolas Kiefer in three sets to square the match after Meghann Shaughnessy had lost to Germany’s Sabine Lisicki in the women’s singles, leaving the result hinging on the mixed doubles, which Lisicki and Kiefer won 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 (match tiebreaker).
After losing 3-0 to Slovakia in its opening match, the US needed to beat Germany and Australia to have a chance of reaching tomorrow’s final in the international mixed team tournament.
The winner of the Germany-Slovakia match will top Group A and advance to the final. The US will end the round-robin against host Australia, which is also winless in two matches.
Russia defeated Taiwan 2-0 in Group B in the night match.
After Dinara Safina beat Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, her elder brother Marat Safin overpowered Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) 7-6, 7-5.
Safina and Safin were to play Hsieh and Lu in a doubles match later last night.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
■ASB CLASSIC
AFP, AUCKLAND
Top seed Elena Dementieva beat local favorite Marina Erakovic to grab a quarter-final spot in the ASB Classic yesterday as other seeds tumbled out of the women’s tournament.
The world No. 4 and Olympic champion beat the New Zealander 6-2, 6-3 as five of the eight seeds fell in second round matches.
Erakovic’s already slim chances of beating Dementieva were further hampered by abdominal and neck strains and she required an extended medical break at 3-4 down in the second set.
Dementieva’s victory sets up a quarter-final clash with fifth-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer today. The Russian said the match against Erakovic had been difficult because of the overwhelming crowd support for her opponent.
“I think we had a good fight in the first set and I played a little better than yesterday and this is what I need, just to improve and keep playing better tennis in every round,” she said afterwards.
Second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark had a smooth passage into the last eight with a 6-4, 7-5 win over US veteran Jill Craybas.
But most of the seeded players fell by the wayside in defeats to less fancied opponents. Fourth-seeded Canadian Alexsandra Wozniak went down 7-5, 6-2 to Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita and Romanian Edina Gallovits scored a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 shock win over third seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.
Other players to go down included Czech sixth seed Nicole Vaidisova, Russian seventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Spanish eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro. Pavlyuchenkova, 17, the tournament’s youngest player, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai, who was runner-up in the tournament last year.
■QATAR OPEN
AP, DOHA
Rafael Nadal routed Fabrice Santoro 6-0, 6-1 on Tuesday in his first ATP Tour match of the year, with Roger Federer and Andy Murray also breezing into the second round of the Qatar Open.
The top-ranked Nadal needed only 46 minutes for the win, breaking Santoro three times in each set.
“It was a quick start for me and that is good,” Nadal said. “I didn’t expect it [to be] so easy, because Santoro is a tough player. His style is difficult.”
Federer advanced with similar ease, beating Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 6-2, while defending champion Andy Murray defeated Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-4.
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