Serb Ana Ivanovic needed only one hour and five minutes to see
off the second seed Maria Sharapova before advancing into the final
at the French Open on Thursday.
The Russian only managed to hold serve twice as the seventh seed
Ivanovic created five break point chances and converted on all of
them to beat the injury-plagued Sharapova 6-2, 6-1, with both of
them appearing in their first semifinal in Paris.
"I played a great match and didn't miss much. I was expecting a
tough match but I took my opportunities. I knew I had to be
aggressive because if you give her chances she will take them."
said Ivanovic.
"I didn't make many unforced errors and I served really well,"
added the Serb, who improved to 2-1 against the Russian.
"Maria likes to dominate but I knew she's not a great mover so I
tried to play the ball deep and put her under pressure. She went
for the big shots but I was there.
"Now I will look forward to the final, it's my first in a
GrandSlam and I'm very excited about it."
Ivanovic will next play twice defending champion Justine Henin
in the final.
Ivanovic broke Sharapova in her first service game with a
sizzling forehand winner and was taking 5-1 lead when the Russian
made a double fault in the opener.
Sharapova rallied to break back to pull within 2-5 but it was a
brief respite from the onslaught as Ivanovic once again broke the
Russian's serve in the eighth game to claim the set.
The first set statistics made grim reading for the former world
number one and reigning U.S. Open champion with 16 unforced errors,
twice as many as the tidy Serbian teenager.
Ivanovic served a love game to take the first game of the second
set and then played the best game of the contest with her all-out
attack exposing Sharapova's clay court uncertainty as she broke to
go up 2-0.
Sharapova was hitting a series of unforced errors especially on
her forehand and that again left her in a hole as she quickly went
4-0 down after another break.
After that, the result was never in doubt. Sharapova just
couldn't find the way out.
With troublesome shoulder and hamstring injuries Sharapova
participated in only one warm-up event prior to Roland Garros and
despite making a slow start to the tournament the world No. 2 has
got better and better as she has progressed through the draw.
However, Sharapova admitted that she had been outplayed in the
semifinal.
"I felt like I gave her the chances to open up the court and she
was always the one getting to the ball first," said the
Russian.
"I would have liked my serve to be more effective but giving her
the first ball wasn't a great game plan. There were a lot of sloppy
errors and I just couldn't find any rhythm."
The 19-year-old Serbian has performed well at Roland Garros in
the past, making it all the way to the quarterfinals two years ago,
before eventually falling to Nadia Petrova of Russia in straight
sets.
On Tuesday Ivanovic met another Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova and
despite a second set slip, the Serbian star triumphed in three
seesaw sets to reach the semifinals.
(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2007)
