Defending champion Ana Ivanovic was sent packing by little-known qualifier World #135 Michelle Larcher De Britoat the Aegon Classic Birmingham 2015 in a tight three set match 4-6 6-3 6-7(6).
Ana Ivanovic stepped onto the center court on a blustery day in Birmingham as defending champion, however the World #7 looked far from her best during early proceedings. In the first game of the set the Serbian couldn’t find her range on serve, throwing in two double faults before eventually handing the break to her Portuguese opponent. Despite never having played each other before it was Larcher-De Brito who looked by far the more comfortable of the two players, holding firm on serve before breaking Ivanovic for the second time to go up an early double break to lead 3-0.
Ivanovic looked extremely rusty, with her second serve being punished at all times. The world #7 finally started landing her shots earning her a break point on Larcher De Brito’s serve, capitalizing on her first chance of the game she managed to take one of the breaks back. Despite both players trading breaks early on in the first set Larcher De Brito was able to hold on to her earlier break advantage and take the set 6-3.
Being heavily cheered on by her boyfriend Bastian Schweinsteiger and her team, Ivanovic upper her game at the start of the second set looking more like the player of last year; her forehand was firing from both sides, making Larcher De Brito work a lot harder to win her games. The set was tight until 4-3, and with the wind and sun causing havoc with Larcher De Brito’s game, Ivanovic pounced grabbing her first break point opportunity to lead 5-3, eventually holding serve to love taking the second set 6-3; leveling the match at 1 set all.
Having cut down her unforced errors and managing to average a good level behind her first and second serve Ivanovic looked the stronger of the two players, gaining an early break advantage to go up 2-0. After going down an early break Larcher De Brito started playing without fear, hammering the ball back at her opponent, eventually breaking the Serbian back to level the third set at 3-3. Having squandered her earlier break in the set Ivanovic got another chance, breaking at 4 all to serve for the match, however sensing the crowd wanted more Larcher De Brito broke straight back to level it at 5 all and with both players inevitably holding serve the match was to be decided by a tiebreak.
Heading into the tiebreak neither player looked a sure winner, however it was Ivanovic who got off to an early 2 point lead before Larcher De Brito came back taking her own ‘mini-break’ for 4-2. Ivanovic hit some spectacular shots to get herself back to level-pegging but it was not to be, at 6-7 down the Serbia hit yet another double fault handing the tiebreak and the match to her opponent.
Larcher De Brito has been the surprise package of the tournament so far, coming through qualifying having beaten players ranked much higher than her, she looks poised to have a dream tournament on the surface she loves.
Talking after the match Larcher De Brito said, “I love the grass it suits my game. Now I guess it’s my favourite surface.”
Despite hitting 15 aces compared to Larcher-De Brito’s 2 it was Ivanovic’s double faults and poor second serve percentage which did the damage throughout the match. The Serbian hit a total 6 double-faults and was constantly under pressure on her second serve, only winning a total 46 percent of points behind it.
After her loss Ivanovic was very reflective of her opponent and her game, “She did play really well. She really didn’t give much. She had few unforced errors towards the end of the second set, beginning of the third, and that was about it.
Ivanovic spoke further about her overall game, “Today i started really bad until i found my rhythm and so on. Her ball was staying very, very low, so i struggled with it a little bit at times. I was very disappointed i couldn’t hold my serve in the third set.”
“I change my serve a little bit, so I worked on that. So that was the first time I implemented that in the match.”
Despite her loss today she stated she will be back fit and ready for Wimbledon, with no plans to play in Eastbourne she stated she’ll move straight to London and prepare for Wimbledon. “Yeah definitley. Probably move to London and train there in National Centre. Just trying get to also lots of sparring matches, live games against the girls. I’m going to be training a lot. Now i have almost ten days to really work hard and get level up”
When asked if she could hope to achieve as a good a run as she did in Paris last month she was hopeful, “I worked hard actually in the last week, so physically i feel actually better than I felt in Paris. I know myself and i already worked hard, so I really feel it’s matter of days until I get it right.”
“It’s ambitious definitely, but I’m taking it one step at a time, you know, trying to find my feet on the grass little bit, and, yeah, just see how it goes. I know my game and potential.”
She even smiled and joked that having her Boyfriend Bastian Schweinsteiger with her was a good omen, despite losing early “It’s always good.”
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