TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – Most tennis fans were perhaps at least mildly interested when they saw the 1st round matchup of former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic verses young French hopeful Caroline Garcia. Although this was the first meeting between the two, it was the experienced Ivanovic who took control immediately as she dismissed the youngster 6-1 6-3. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
Most tennis fans were perhaps at least mildly interested when they saw the 1st round matchup of former French Open champion (2008) Ana Ivanovic (11) verses young French hopeful Caroline Garcia. Both players have had a relatively good year winning titles coming into this tournament. Although this was the first meeting between the two, it was the experienced Ivanovic who took control immediately as she dismissed the youngster 6-1 6-3 in 67 minutes. Ivanovic was all smiles after the match having got through so easily a potentially tricky opponent. “I did expect very tough match. Especially she’s been playing really well on clay, and it’s a first time we played it against each other, and I didn’t know much coming into the match” Ivanovic later stated. Garcia on the other hand was inconsolable as she left the court in tears having cracked under the pressure of playing in front of her home crowd.
Garcia’s nerves were evident from her opening service game as Ivanovic quickly earned two break points. Garcia double faulted to give up the break. She lost her next service game as well when her backhand went wide. She was down 0-4 before she was able to get on the scoreboard. Not even the crowd partisan support could lift Garcia’s game or deter Ivanovic from her flawless game plan. She took the 1st set 6-1 in half an hour. Garcia looked shell shocked as though she was not sure what to do on court especially against the in-form Ivanovic.
At the end of the opening set, Garcia went off court to change her clothes and perhaps gain some composure but it hardly made a difference. She was down 0-2 at the start of the 2nd set. Things did look a bit for the Frenchwoman when she broke opponent to get back on serve at 1-2. Ivanovic sensing a potential shift in the momentum, broke back immediately and closed out the match with an ace out wide 6-1 6-3. This was quite unfortunate for the young Frenchwoman as she was unable to find her best tennis on this big stage. She double faulted 6 times for the match and was only winning around 50% of the points on both her first and second serves. She had 8 winners to 34 errors. This kind of effort could hardly hurt Ivanovic who had 18 errors to 10 winners. She won 73% of her first serves and 58% of her second serves.
Ivanovic spoke about coming back to Roland Garros having had success here in the past: “[M]y ultimate dream would be to win other two, but it’s definitely a good feeling coming back here and knowing I had success here in the past, it kind of drives me to work each round and to try and get there again.” It will be interesting to see how far Ivanovic will get in this bottom half of the draw since Li Na was ousted in three sets earlier today by Kristina Mladenovic.
