Ivanovic Struggles Against 82-Seed Vinci

Having stayed on the No.1 position for a period of twelve weeks last season has not been easy for top-seed Ana Ivanovic.  She has struggled hard to maintain her place at the top and that's just what she did to claim a victory over Roberta Vinci of Italy on Wednesday, 7 th Jan.

 She beat her rival by fighting off match points scored against her twice and barely made it to the quarter finals of the Brisbane International with the scoreboard showing a not very impressive lead of 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-1. 

Ana Ivanovic will be facing former world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo in her quarter final match on thursday, 8th Jan.  It will be a match worth watching as the two titans clash against each other, both fighting to reclaim their lost titles. In countries where no television coverage is being given to the tournament, fans can keep themselves through online tennis live scoreboard.  Mauresmo made it into the finals by winning 3 straight sets against her fellow Frenchwoman, Julie Coin.  This may just be a warning to the struggling Ivanovic.  In the 10th game of the second, the 21 years old Serbian tennis star gave her 82nd ranked opponent, Roberta Vinci, double match point at 15-40 in addition to going down a set.  Ivanovic tried to make the the most of her powerfully executed ground strokes and her serves, forcing Vinci  to make mistakes so as to stay in the game.

  Ivanovic managed to win nine of the first ten points in the final and deciding set.  She seemed to finally be on top of the game when she quickly reached a 5-0 lead and comfortably put an end to the match.  After the match she claimed that winning a close match was good for boosting up her confidence in preparation for the Australian Open.  Ivanovic reached the final of the Australian Open last year but was unable to win the title.

  Ivanovic praised her rival's game saying she played "really well" but she tried to fight her off by "being fitter and tougher mentally".  This made up for her lack of aggression and helped her win a tough match.

  Ivanovic has been seen struggling with her game since the beginning of the season.  Although she won in the first round from Petra Kvitova in her first match of the season, yet it seemed like she was not at her best.

  Ivanovic was saved from the embarrassment of becoming the second highly ranked player to be ousted from the Brisbane tournament.  She was saved by just one point.  Before her, men's top seed Novak Djokovic, who is also a Serb, had a shocking first round that saw him getting elimintaed form the tournament.

  Just an update here of the latest tennis results at Brisbane.  Mauresmo played one of the longest tour matches of her tennis career, which lasted for 3 hours, 14 minutes.  She finally beat the 95th seed Coin 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (11).

  Sara Errani of Italy beat Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-3.

  As for men's tennis results at Brisbane, top seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Fernando Verdasco, Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek all went up into the next round.

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