By Lauren Lynch
Photo Credit: Mark Howard and Tony Chang/Chang Photography

(March 29, 2011) Defending champion and 2nd seed Kim Clijsters took out fighting spirit Ana Ivanovic 7-6(4), 6-3, 7-6(5) on court 2 of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Unfortunately the match had no TV coverage even after the Petkovic vs. Jankovic ended, instead, we got to see Nadal and Dolgopolov walk on the court and warm up. Like Petkovic, Ivanovic took out Jelena Jankovic last week in the BNP Paribas Open quarterfinals.

Having to wait a day to get on court after the rain, Ivanovic did a lot of fist pumps through several deuce play outs but Clijsters was able to fight back from 1-5 in the final set in an intense tie breaker.

Clijsters informed about how she kept her cool being down 1-5, "There are moments where you have to try and be patient, but there is also moments where you have to step up and take advantage of her playing not as aggressive and trying to hit some shorter balls. I think that's something that I've learned over the years, is that I'm able to read that when my opponent is dropping their game a little bit."


Clijsters was plagued by doubles faults, 11 to be exact to Ana's 7, while Ana had 5 aces to Kim's 1. Clijsters meets Victoria Azarenka next.

Ivanovic broke a racquet and shed some tears but in the end played very well considering the opponent and the pressure. After getting to five match points against Clijsters, Ivanovic said, " I think no matter what ranking says, I think she's the hottest player at the moment. You know, it was gonna be a good test for me, and I managed to stay out there with her physically and also to create opportunities and to create lots of match points for myself. That's a very positive thing for me to take from here, because, you know, coming into Indian Wells and Miami, honestly I wasn't feeling great physically. So to come all that way and challenge myself against, you know, best player, it's a good thing."