Ivanovic Wins Despite High Error Count

© Getty ImagesIvanovic hit 35 unforced errors

Serbian No. 15 Ana Ivanovic overcame some sloppy play to hold off American Vania King 6-4, 7-5 in a women’s singles second round match on stadium court.

Coming off her best result of 2012 by reaching the semifinals at Indian Wells, Ivanovic committed 35 unforced errors, had four double faults and was just 49 percent on first serves.
But the 2008 French Open winner and former No. 1 relied on her power by notching 25 winners and six aces to improve to 5-0 in head-to-head meetings against King.
 
“Yeah, she [King] was playing really well today I thought, especially beginning of the match,” said Ivanovic, who upped her record to 12-6 on the year.  “She was moving well and executing well, especially off the backhand side and was going often down the line.

“I was making one or two unforced errors too much in the beginning, but I'm just happy that I took my opportunities. Because these kind of matches can be very tricky and tough.  It's important to get through them.  And especially in that second set I'm happy that I managed to break her back and, you know, come back and win.”

Ivanovic advances to play the winner of No. 20 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine. 

Although King was 64 percent on first serves, she did not register an ace.  When opportunities arose to change the balance of the match, she missed on five of six break point chances. 

On the flip side, Ivanovic was a tad better converting on three of six break point opportunities.
Ivanovic said she is still not 100 percent after suffering through a left hip injury that forced her to retire with a 6-4, 0-1 lead on Maria Sharapova in the semis at Indian Wells. 

“It was fine,” Ivanovic said of the MRI she received after that match.“It was nothing major.  It was like some micro tears, nothing big that MRI could pick up, which was really good.  I still took about three days off and was just playing very little last few days. I'm working at it, yeah.”