Wed Jun 25 12:20:24 2008

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Ivanovic survives marathon; Serena also moves on at Wimbledon

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Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic staved off two match points in a marathon 3-hour, 24-minute second-round match before finally sneaking past veteran Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy on Wednesday at Wimbledon. Two-time champion Serena Williams joined Ivanovic in the third round here.

The French Open champion Ivanovic prevailed 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-3), 10-8 in a tremendous bout against the 29-year-old Dechy on Court 1 at the venerable All England Club.

The 97th-ranked Dechy let Ivanovic know that she could be in for a long day by taking the first set via tiebreak.

And leading 5-4 in the second set, Dechy's first of two match points was set- up when Ivanovic misfired long on a two-handed backhand. But the Serbian promptly saved the first one with a forehand winner.

Another crucial, and certainly the most memorable, shot in the match came on the next point, when Ivanovic swatted a forehand that caught the net cord and then barely trickled over onto Dechy's side to prolong the match.

Ivanovic went on to hold her serve to level the second stanza at 5-5.

The set eventually went to a tiebreak, which the Serb won handily and closed out with an unreturnable serve.

In the third set, Ivanovic broke for a 4-2 lead, then lost her serve and broke again for a 5-3 advantage. But Dechy then broke and held to tie things up at 5-all.

Ivanovic then held for a 6-5 edge and set-up her first match points of the day with another forehand winner. Dechy, however, like Ivanovic did in the second set, staved off the match points and held her serve for a 6-6 deadlock in the final stanza.

The 20-year-old Ivanovic would finally convert on her fourth match point of the day by launching yet another forehand winner in the 18th game of the epic 1-hour, 23-minute third set.

The hard-hitting Ivanovic wound up with 10 aces and broke Dechy six times, compared to five breaks for the game Frenchwoman.

Ivanovic is now 15-1 in her Grand Slam matches this year, including a first- ever Grand Slam title in Paris earlier this month and a runner-up finish at the Australian Open back in January.

Up next for a relieved Ivanovic will be Chinese Jie Zheng.

A sixth-seeded Williams, meanwhile, advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 decision against Poland's Urszula Radwanska and is now 39-6 lifetime at the All England Club.

The former top-ranked Williams owns eight Grand Slam titles, including back- to-back Wimbledon crowns in 2002 and 2003. She also reached the final here in 2004, but lost to Russian Maria Sharapova.

The first round concluded here on Wednesday when fifth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva snuck past Italian Maria Elena Camerin 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 6-3. The match was suspended due to darkness here on Tuesday, with the two-time major finalist Dementieva leading 6-3, 3-3.

In other second-round play involving top-16 seeds, No. 4 Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova clocked Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2, 6-3 and No. 11 Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli handled Ukrainian Tatiana Perebiynis 6-2, 7-5. Bartoli was last year's surprise Wimbledon runner-up to four-time champion Venus Williams.