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US Open Series Champ Ivanovic Pulls Out Third-Set Win US Open Series women's champion Ana Ivanovic continued her quest for the US Open title with a tight three-set win over Vera Dushevina, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the first round on Wednesday. Clinching the 2006 US Open Series means 18-year-old Ivanovic now has the chance to play for a potential $1 million in bonus prize money. Ivanovic said that over the past few tournaments she's built a great amount of confidence in her game and has improved with each week, giving her a momentum boost coming into the US Open. "This was a very big moment for me, and I was very honored to be able to play here," Ivanovic said. "To win the US Open Series, I didn't really expect that, but with each tournament I felt that I was playing better and better. In Montreal I played some great tennis, so I was really happy and excited about that." Ivanovic secured the US Open Series title just five points ahead of Maria Sharapova. During the Series, she won the title in Montreal and reached the quarterfinals in Sydney, Indian Wells, Warsaw, 's-Hertogenbosch and Los Angeles. Ivanovic, the 16th seed from Serbia and Montenegro, breezed through the first set against Dushevina and jumped to a quick 5-1 lead before the 19-year-old Russian held and broke serve for 5-3. But Ivanovic finished strong to close out the first set when Dushevina sent a forehand long. Both players held serve through half of the second set, until unforced errors got the best of Ivanovic. Dushevina won break point and followed it up with a hold on serve for 5-3. Ivanovic fought back and pushed it to 5-5 before Dushevina claimed the second set on an Ivanovic forehand error. The two players spent much of the match grinding it out from the baseline and exchanging solid groundstrokes. But Ivanovic had the advantage over Dushevina with 55 winners (Dushevina had 16), the majority of which came off of Ivanovic's rocket forehand. Although the opportunities were there, neither player was able to convert on break chances in the third set. But Ivanovic finally got her opportunity. At 5-4, she reached match point on Dushevina's serve and played what might be considered, fittingly, the best point of the match. After a long battle from the baseline, Ivanovic rushed into net when Dushevina hit a short crosscourt shot that Ivanovic was barely able to reach before it hit the ground. Her spin shot return popped just over the net, falling too short for Dushevina to reach. Ivanovic said winning the match on that last volley was definitely a motivation for her to use the serve and volley strategy more often in her matches. "I try to improve my game by coming more often to the net and be more aggressive," she said. "Today I think I didn't do that as often as I should have. I missed some volleys, but the last one was the most important one I made, so I was really happy with that. I think for next matches I should come more often to the net." Ivanovic will face Aiko Nakamura of Japan in the second round, with the possibility of meeting Serena Williams in the third round. "Serena is a great player, and she deserves to be much higher ranked, I think, but I just want to take it step by step now, I have one more match to win before that," Ivanovic said of the potential match-up. "But I'm very excited to play her, I've never played her before, so it should be an exciting match." |
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