Serbian tennis cutie pie, Ana Ivanovic, had a good showing in the WTA BNP Paribas Open March 11-22, 2009 in Indian Wells, California, USA, making it all the way into the Final match. Unfortunately, the No. 7 ranked player’s run was cut one match short of the championship by the No. 5 ranked Vera Zvonareva of Russia.
Ivanovic won quite easily through the first rounds. After a BYE, she defeated Anastasia Yakimova of Belarus, 6-4, 6-3, and then Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-3, 6-3.
The 4th round was a closer match. No. 15 ranked Flavia Pennetta of Italy stretched Ivanovic to 3 sets, but fell short of an upset 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Ivanovic had a “walkover” win in round 5 over Sybille Bammer who pulled out because of an injured left shoulder.
That brought her into the Semifinals where she came up against an up-and-coming No. 27 ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. It proved to be an easy win for Ivanovic, 6-2, 6-3.
Ivanovic fought hard in the first set against Zvonareva in the championship match, taking it to a tie-break. However, Ivanovic lost the tie-break 5-7, then the final set 2-6.
That brought an end to a great tournament for Ivanovic. This was her first appearance in Final match this year. She is now 12-4 on the season. Hopefully this will boost her confidence and get her on the right track for the remainder of the year.
