Ivanovic Crushes Hingis for First Tier I Triumph

from  www.sonyericsson.com. August 21, 2006

MONTRÉAL, Canada - Cracking forehands with stunning authority and playing tough on the biggest points, Ana Ivanovic completed a dream run at the Rogers Cup on Monday afternoon, dismantling Martina Hingis, 62 63, to claim her second and most prestigious Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title.

Ivanovic, seeded No.13 at the Tier I event, executed an aggressive style to near-perfection against the No.7-seeded Hingis in the final, which was pushed to Monday after rainfall disrupted scheduling over the weekend. She dominated on serve, losing just 12 points in eight service games and not once facing a break point; and she punished Hingis' deliveries with some piercing down-the-line returns, breaking serve four times en route to the 58-minute rout. It was their first career encounter.

"In the beginning, the first few games, I was a little bit nervous," Ivanovic said. "She's just a great player and a great competitor, and I knew I just had to play my game. When you're calm, you can think the most what you have to do, and that was my main goal today, and I'm really happy to see that I could manage to do that. I played some good tennis the whole week and I'm really excited."

"Her forehand, it was just winners, winners," Hingis said. "I tried to keep it deep, but she stepped away and boom, really close to the lines. And I had difficulties trying to read her game. Everything was happening a little bit too fast. And my game went down, and hers got better. So, this is another youngster whose potential is very, very high and now we will see how she can handle it."

Despite several high-profile withdrawals prior to the tournament, Ivanovic's run to the title was by no means a cake-walk. She defeated five of the world's Top 30 en route to the title, her biggest wins coming in the semifinals and final, dismissing 14th-ranked Dinara Safina and the 12th-ranked Hingis, her eighth and ninth career victories over Top 15 players. She also improved her career finals record to 2-0 with Monday's victory, having won her first title at the much smaller Tier V event in Canberra last January. Additionally, with the win, she rises from No.19 to No.17, one spot away from her career-high, No.16.

"It's a great tournament; the people are friendly and the crowd is one of the best. I enjoyed so much my time here and they took really good care of us. It's a very, very special tournament for me. From the first day we came here and the first match I played, I told my coach I felt so good here, there's something special about this tournament. I'm just so happy I played this well the whole week and I'm definitely going to look forward to coming back."

On the other side of the net, there are many positives that can be taken away by Hingis. Not only did she make it to the third final of her comeback, all of which have come at the prestigious Tier I level (she is 1-2 in those, winning in Rome and finishing runner-up at Tokyo [Pan Pacific] and here), but by reaching the semis she assured herself of a Top 10 return this week. It is the first time since October 2002 that she will rank among that elite; she moves from No.12 to No.9.

"At the beginning of the year if you had asked me if I'd make the Top 10, I'd kiss your hand and say, 'Well, yes, of course I'll take it.' But now I'm making it and I see those girls really fight to earn their spot; you always want more. Of course, I'm frustrated losing the finals, but all you can do is keep your head up; there's certainly some things I have to work on before the US Open."

Hingis also beat world No.7 Svetlana Kuznetsova en route to the title, the fourth Top 10 scalp of her comeback, having beaten the likes of Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport and Elena Dementieva already.

"Obviously you have to take all the positive things about being in the finals like here in Montréal. But you also have to keep realistic. If you really want to win Grand Slams or stay where you're at, in the Top 10, which is my goal, or was my goal, you have to make those things happen over and over again. I don't want to see [Ivanovic] too close in my draw when I play the US Open."

The respective runs of Hingis and Ivanovic were not the only headline-makers in Québec. There were breakthrough runs for several players, including first-time Tier I semifinalist Anna Chakvetadze, first time Tier I quarterfinalists Shahar Peer (an Israeli teenager) and Nicole Pratt (an Australian veteran who came through qualifying), as well as Safina, who continued her steady rise up the Top 15 by reaching her third career Tier I semifinal. Top seed and defending champion Kim Clijsters was among the injury retirements list, hurting her left wrist in her opener and subsequently announcing a two-month lay-off from the game, a lay-off that will stop her from defending her US Open title.

Last but definitely not least was the first-time pairing of Martina Navratilova and Nadia Petrova in the doubles draw; the American-Russian duo, who were unseeded, stunned top seeds Yan Zi and Zheng Jie in the quarterfinals and routed No.2 seeds Cara Black and Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the final to claim the title. They will play together for the second and last time next week in Flushing Meadows, the last tournament for Navratilova before she heads into full retirement. 

But the week belonged to Ivanovic, who sent a resounding message to the rest of the Tour that one of its most promising future stars has now arrived.

"This is a big step for me. I had a very tough match in the semifinals because we had rain delay and it was a mental game. And against Martina, she's a great player, and playing juniors I watched her winning Grand Slam titles and now I had a chance to play against her and played some good tennis. So this gives me some more confidence and basically now I can also consider myself being one of them, one of the top players. And that's a big step for me. I'm just now, at the moment, really happy, and that gives me motivation to work even harder and to keep this level and to even improve.

"But definitely this tournament helped me having more self confidence going into the US Open and I just want to try and keep that level."