Reuters
Paris, May 28: Ana Ivanovic’s hopes of adding to her 2008 French Open success ended rather tamely here Saturday as she was beaten by Justine Henin’s new charge, Ukrainian 18th seed Elina Svitolina, in the third round. Svitolina won 6-4, 6-4, her first win over the Serbian eight meetings. Moreover, the girl from Odessa had managed to win only one set against Ivanovic in the past, so winning two sets in a row showed a marked improvement.
“It’s really disappointing to finish in this manner,” a glum Ivanovic, who was broken seven times and produced 29 unforced errors, told reporters. “My forehand wasn’t really working today (Saturday). I was making a lot of errors. My forehand let me down.”
On a rain-interrupted Saturday afternoon, top seed Serena Williams had to really push it hard before overcoming local favourite Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 7-6 (12-10). The French girl saved three match points in the second set tie-break after being up 5-2 at one point. But in the end, the experience of Serena prevailed.
In other women’s singles matches played on the day eighth seed Timea Bacinszky had it easy against Pauline Parmentier winning 6-4, 6-2 while Spaniard and clay exponent Carlo Suarez Navarro had to fight hard to overcome Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
In men’s singles, Austrian Dominic Thiem reached the pre quarter-finals after beating German Alexander Zverev 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in a match lasting two hours and 50 minutes. Thiem, 22, achieved his third straight victory over the 19-year-old German, who was defeated in the final of Nice Open a week ago and in the semifinals of the Munich Open a few days earlier.
The Austrian will face Spaniard Marcel Granollers, who qualified for the last 16 after the withdrawal of his compatriot Rafael Nadal due to a wrist injury.
In another match between Spaniards 11th seed David Ferrer and 22nd seed Feliciano Lopez, the former won easily 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1. It was baseline slugging all the way through and Ferrer’s ability to play that one shot more at the crucial junctures helped him clinch the match in three straight sets.
