Monday 3 October 2011

China Open - Caro scrapes through, Ivanovic beats Kuzzy

Ana Ivanovic produced one of her cleanest performances of the year as she comfortably saw off Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-2 6-3. Ivanovic struggled to close both sets out but eventually got the job done against a disinterested Kuznetsova. Ivanovic's forehand was looking particularly potent today and she will now play either Vera Zvonareva or Klara Zakopalova in the third round. Ivanovic has avoided the huge amount of 1st round defeats she has suffered in the last two years, but she is still struggling with her consistency during a tournament and producing a performance like she did today throughout the whole week. I think the off-season will be a big time for Ana and her coach, Nigel Sears to fine tune her game ready for 2012.

Caroline Wozniacki suffered a scare as she recovered from the loss of the first set to beat Lucie Hradecka, 3-6 6-0 7-5. Hradecka was fearless from the back of the court as she bludgeoned the ball throughout; however Caro will take heart from this performance as she worked her way out of the match and into the next round to play another fearless ball basher, Jarmila Gajdosova. They played last week in Tokyo where Gajdosova should have won, so she will hope to do better this time round.

In other matches, Dominika Cibulkova produced an excellent serving display to beat Francesca Schiavone, 6-2 6-2 and Peng Shuai was once again beaten by Flavia Pennetta in a nervous 7-6 7-5 loss. The Chinese now only have Zheng Jie to cheer on after Li Na suffered a dreadful loss to Monica Niculescu yesterday, 6-4 6-0. It is amazing how someone can lose so much confidence after winning their first Major less than six months ago... the off-season could not come any quicker for Li!!!

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