No. 19 seed, Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, took a 1st round exit from the Australian Open, blaming an injury for the loss.
Ana’s departure came at the hands of No. 49 ranked Ekaterina Makarova of Russia who won the thriller 3-6, 6-4, 10-8.
While it was a close match, it was very disappointing for Ana, who was hoping to make a good run at this Grand Slam with her new coach, Antonio Van Grichen (who replaced Heinz Günthardt) at her side. But it wasn’t to be, and Ana said an abdominal strain suffered during this month’s Hopman Cup in Perth, where she withdrew from the final, had hampered her preparation.
“I was really unlucky, for the last 10 days I couldn’t push hard in practice because of my abdominal strain,” she said.
“What really I think got to me in the end was fitness, you know, just not being able to stay with her in a longer rallies. That was really disappointing.”
“I really only had Sunday and Monday that I could push a little bit more and could actually serve. I think that at the end got to me. Energy-wise I felt good, but it was just that few little extra steps that were lacking.”
Ekaterina is Russia’s ninth-best player on world rankings at No.49 but she showed her class in a match lasting two hours and 47 minutes. As for her, she was in heaven. “Just after the match I didn’t really realise I actually had won because it had been such a tough match. She had beaten me easily at the US Open, but today, I’m so happy to have given it all I had and to have won,” said the Russian who now faces Ukraine’s Lesya Tsurenko.
Ana also said, “Today she was better, all credit to her, but I still have lot of room to improve and lot of things to build on.”
“I really feel my game is coming together and, you know, lots of positives came out of this match today.”
Ana showed some fight by saving five match points in a tight third set. “Maybe I should have played that kind of tennis when I had chance to go up and not when you are back’s against the wall.”
“Like I said, I really tried to hang in there and fight and try to look for opportunities. I didn’t have too many of them, but I did have some even in that third set. Just disappointed I couldn’t convert them,” she said.
