TEMPO.CO, Rome - Serian tennis woman Ana Ivanovic walked through the fourth round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia tournament after trashing Russian beauty Maria Sharapova in two sets 6-1 and 6-4. Ivanovic is to face Spanish Carla Suarez Navarro, winning a walk-out decision (WO) over Romanian Simona Halep, who failed to present herself due to illness.
Ivanovic, upon taking on Sharapova, displayed a consistent game play. Despite recently winning Mutua Madrid Open tournament on Sunday, Ivanovic played superbly and took only 31 minutes to defeat Sharapova in the first set.
Sharapova responded with a tremendous pressure on the second set, as the two went on a point chase. Ivanovic, however, nailed the game with a decent forehand, thus ending her seven defeats in a row against Sharapova.
The tournament in Rome is a warm-up competition to next anticipated event this summer, French Open Grand Slam on May 25 to June 8 in Paris.
WTATENNIS | AGUS BAHARUDIN