Wow, few expected a close match today between Ana Ivanovic and Nathalie Dechy today. Just before the match, ESPN was mentionning how Ana was probably the favourite for the Wimbledon Championships and the debate was between Ana and Novak Djokovic (shocked today by Marat Safin) as to which Serbian would win Wimbledon the 1st time.But a close match it was. the whole first set was very close and when Nathalie Dechy pulled ahead during the tie-break to take the opening set. But even then, bookmakers were setting Ana as the heavy favourite and as she advanced to an early lead in the 2nd set, she gave the impression she would roll through the next 2 sets... but Nathalie Dechy fought right back, came and made the 2nd set very very interesting. She even eventually got a match point which Ana was able to fight back with a bit of luck hitting the net. ********************************************
Q. When you hit that forehand down match point, what did you think was going to happen?
ANA IVANOVIC: I felt like time stopped for a moment because I thought I hit pretty good shot and I moved forward, so there was a momentum going forward.
Then ball hit the net and it was in air for a couple of seconds. It was moving away, so I thought maybe even it will go out. Just so many thoughts at same moment.
I just, you know, thought the match would be over. I felt like, you know, after that point ‑‑ you know, you have some situations through your career that you feel, you know, you lose the match, and afterwards you think, I should have done that differently.
So you really want to go out and play again the match. After that point, I felt like it was a new match for me and I had a new opportunity.
***************************************So what do you think? Could this be the turning point for Ana or is this a warning that Ana is perhaps not playing her best tennis right now and might be exhausted? I'd personally vote for the 1st option. Over the past few months, it's happened quite a few times that Ana had an early struggle but then would fight back and play a lot better. So we'll keep our eyes open but I'm predicting a much better effort for Ana in her 3rd round match...
# posted by Pierre : 5:14 PM
