Ana Ivanovic fought back from an early break down to overcome Carina Witthoeft 7-6 (7-3) 6-0 at the Porsche Indoor Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. Witthoeft broke serve to love in the fifth game of the opening set to take a 3-2 lead. Witthoeft served for the set at 5-4 but Ivanovic broke straight back in the 10th game to draw level to 5-5. Ivanovic prevailed 7-3 in the tie-break before winning the second set with a bagel without giving any chances to the German player. Ivanovic hit 32 winners to 28 unforced errors.
Ivanovic sets up a tough second round match against either Karolina Pliskova or Lucie Safarova. The Serbian was runner-up to Maria Sharapova in the 2014 final in Stuttgart.
“I have been practicing really hard in the last couple of weeks. I have been putting in a lot of work, a lot of hours on court and in the gym. It’s nice to see. That actually helped me to go through today. My serve is improving. I am just so happy to actually be healthy and consistent. Hopefully, I can keep the level and raise it”, said Ivanovic.
Carla Suarez Navarro needed just over an hour to ease past French qualifier Oceanie Dodin 6-3 6-0. The Spanish player hit 17 winners to 11 unforced errors. Dodin got an early break in the first game but Suarez Navarro broke back in the sixth game to draw level to 5-5. This year’s Doha champion broke again in the 8th game for 5-3 before serving out for the first set to 15. She broke three times in the first, in the third and in the fifth games to ease through to a bagel win in the second set.
Suarez Navarro will take on German Anna-Lena Friedsam, who beat Johanna Konta.
German qualifier Laura Siegemund beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0 7-5 setting up a second round against fourth seed Simona Halep. The German did not convert a set point at 5-3 in the second set.
In the doubles tournament Number 2 seed and Charlseston champions Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic came back from a set down to overcome Laura Siegemund and Johanna Konta 3-6 6-3 10-7.
