Ana Ivanovic Bests Flavia Pennetta To Advance In Miami

The 12th ranked tennis player in the world, Ana Ivanovic toppled Flavia Pennetta to advance in the Sony Open yesterday afternoon. The Serbian superstar recorded her fifth consecutive victory over Pennetta with a straight-set win in Miami, in what proved to be an underwhelming match-up considering all the hype surrounding it before hand.

According to an article on SteveGTennis.com, Pennetta had been surging creating an interesting match-up against Ivanovic:

“While Ivanovic has won all four of their previous encounters on the professional tour, she will be forced to muster her best tennis to overcome the Italian on this particular occasion. Pennetta is currently peaking following her extraordinary victory at Indian Wells, and while that does not necessarily translate more victories after the fact, it is quite possible that the world No. 13 could reach the fourth round tomorrow with a tight three set win.”

But the eventual outcome was instead the complete opposite thanks to Ana’s dominating straight-set win in Miami. According to TennisEarth.com the match wasn’t near as perfect as it could have been, but Ivanovic came through when it counted most:

“After 39 minutes of grueling tennis action, former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic clinched the first set. The Serbian made a fine comeback from a break down to win the first set against the BNP Paribas Open champion Pennetta. Ivanovic got only 45% of first serve in, hammered 9 winners and also committed more number of unforced errors as compared to the Italian, but in the end – the Serbian played a lot better tennis on crucial points and won the first set.”

In 2008, the Serbian born Ivanovic was ranked the number one tennis player in the world. Most recently Ana has settled into the number 12th spot worldwide. Ana Ivanovic breezed into the third round match-up against Pennetta with a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 win over Lauren Davis.

Meanwhile, top-ranked Serena Williams also advanced with an easy win over Caroline Garcia. According to ESPN.com, Williams only needed “2½ hours to eliminate [her].”

Sochi born tennis player Maria Sharapova however did not have as easy a time as Williams and Ivanovic. According to ESPN.com, “Sharapova needed nine match points before she finally closed out a win Saturday night in the third round of the Sony Open, beating Safarova 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-2.” Maria was one point away earlier in the day from closing the victory out but failed to put her opponent away before finally besting her an hour later.

The SONY open continues this week with Ana Ivanovic looking to advance once again.

[Image courtesy of TennisEarth.com]