| By Erik Gudris |
Photo Credit: Natasha Peterson/Corleve |
(March 14th, 2012) Serbia's Ana Ivanovic showed some of the impressive form that she used to win the BNP Paribas Open title back in 2008 as she easily dismissed defending champion Caroline Wozniacki in a straight sets victory.
With her use of powerful groundstrokes and aggressive tactics, Ivanovic overcame an early deficit after she dropped her first two service games. After saving four break points when serving at 2-3, Ivanovic held and then only dropped six service points for the rest of the match en route to a comprehensive 6-3, 6-2 victory over the No. 4 seed.
“I'm very happy,” the No. 15 seed Ivanovic told the BNP Paribas Open site, “I think I didn't do much wrong today besides the first few games on my serve, but I'm really pleased the way I was aggressive. I just stayed in the match and played point by point and did I think everything I should have done today.”
Ivanovic will now face France's Marion Bartoli in the quarterfinals after Bartoli beat Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-4.
Earlier in the day, top seed Victoria Azarenka had no trouble against No. 14 seed Julia Goerges as Azarenka improved her current win streak to 20-0 with an easy 6-3, 6-1 win. Azarenka will now meet No. 5 seed Agnieszka Radwanska after Radwanska survived a second set comeback from American wildcard Jamie Hampton before Hampton, dealing with severe cramping early in the third set, was forced to retire down 6-3, 4-6, 3-0.
No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova didn't face the same problems she did a day before in serving out a 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 21 seed Roberta Vinci of Italy. Sharapova will now face fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko was up 6-1, 5-1 in her match against Nadia Petrova before Petrova stormed back to take the second set. Kirilenko recovered to squeeze out a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 victory.
The final women's quarterfinal was set when China's Li Na overwhelmed Klara Zakopalova 6-1, 6-0 to book her spot against Germany's Angelique Kerber who saved three match points against her before she beat American Christina McHale 6-3, 3-6, 7-6.