Ana Ivanovic won a thrilling three-set match over Svetlana Kuznetsova with 7-5 4-6 6-2 to reach the quarter finals at the China Open, a WTA Premier Mandatory in Beijing keeping her hopes alive to qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Ivanovic needs to qualify at least for the semifinals at the China Open to stay in contention for the WTA Finals.
Kuznetsova, 2009 Roland Garros champion, broke to love for 5-4 in the ninth game but Ivanovic reeled off three consecutive games to clinch the first set with 7-5.
Kuznetsova got an early break in the second set and held her serve to take the second set with 6-4. In the third set the Russian player fended off two match points as she was serving at 0-40 but Ivanovic sealed the win with a break of serve despite a back problem. Ivanovic won her fifth consecutive match over Kuznetsova and now leads 11-3 in her head-to-head over her Russian rival. In their previous matches Ivanovic beat Kuznetsova in three sets in Stuttgart and in Montreal in 2014.
Ivanovic won three consecutive matches for the first time since this year’s Roland Garros where she reached the semifinals. In her previous two matches in Beijing she beat Casey Dellaqua 6-4 6-0 and Venus Williams 7-6 6-2.
In the quarter finals Ivanovic will take on Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova, who rallied from a set down to edge Flavia Pennetta.
Ivanovic credits her recent good results in Tokyo to her coach Nigel Sears, who was rehired by the Serbian star after Wimbledon where she was beaten by Bethanie Mattek Sands in the second round. After taking a break for one month Ivanovic reached the quarter finals in Toronto. Sears’ daughter Kim Sears married to Andy Murray last April. Ivanovic contacted Sears after Wimbledon when she stopped working with her former coach Dejan Petrovic.
“I started with Nigel after Wimbledon. We had a really good preparation. We had about three weeks of really hard work and we did a little bit of work on my serve and it was really improved”, said Ivanovic
“We had already worked well between 2011 and 2013 and we remained in touch. I hope he can help me because I am in a completely different stage of my career and many things have changed. I knew it was just a matter of time before all the pieces fell into place”, said Ivanovic
Garbine Muguruza rallied from a set down to beat Mirjana Lucic Baroni 1-6 6-2 6-1 to book her spot in the WTA Championships in Singapore on her 22nd birthday.
Lucic Baroni got an immediate break to race out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set en route to sealing the win on her first match point with an ace. Number 5 seed Muguruza got an early break en route to drawing level on sets before cruising to 4-0 lead in the third set en route to winning the third set with 6-1.
“I am very happy to be able one of the top eight players of the year. It’s one of the big goals in tennis”, said Muguruza
