Ivanovic crashes out of Wimbledon by Mattek-Sands

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  • Wait continues: Ivanovic has not made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon since 2007.

    Ana Ivanovic became the third women’s top-10 seed to crash out of Wimbledon courtesy an all-out attack from American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who beat the world number seven 6-3, 6-4 in the second round. 

    Mattek-Sands, a former world No30 whose ranking has plummeted to 158 due to injury, recorded the sixth top-10 victory of her career, ousting Ivanovic in a mere 69 minutes in which she fired an impressive 32 winners.

    “She was aggressive. She was coming in a lot. I thought she was hitting a lot of winners. She made some errors, but there was not a rhythm out there, for example like I had in my first match. I kind of expected that. She played well. She served well. Yeah, she definitely did a lot of good things today,” said Ivanovic, who hasn’t made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon since making it to the semi-finals in 2007.

    Ivanovic is looking forward to having a training block before her next tournament in Toronto, which starts on August 10, where she plans on rebuilding her fitness.

    “I changed my team a little bit. My fitness wasn’t at all at the level I wanted it to be. In the French Open (made semis) I really worked hard and tried to get a level up. I played really well,” said Ivanovic.

    “Since then I’ve been working really, really hard. I felt like I improved a lot. Also I was working a lot throughout the tournaments. 

    “Actually now I’m looking forward to having some time off and doing proper preparation because that’s what I’ve been lacking. I’ve been playing catch‑up in that area for a while. I have lots of changes within the team. Now I feel like I have solid base.”

    Mattek-Sands, who hasn’t made it to the third round at Wimbledon since 2008, is yet to drop a set through five matches – three at Roehampton in qualifying and two at the All England Club. 

    “Ana likes to play aggressive and she likes that run-around forehand and she wants to be dictating the points. I really went out there trying to be the first one to do that,” said Mattek-Sands, who plays Belinda Bencic next.   

    “I was playing aggressive. I was going to throw in slices and throw in some serve and volleys, and really play aggressive and work my way to the net. That’s grass court tennis, but that’s how I play on all the surfaces.”

    Meanwhile, world No1 Serena Williams faced little trouble in her dismissal of Hungarian Timea Babos.

    Williams had to wait all day to get on Centre Court after Marin Cilic’s match before lasted for five sets, but she only needed 58 minutes to get off court with a routine 6-4, 6-1 victory.

    She and her sister Venus remain on collision course as they both are due to face off in the fourth round. 

    Venus, seeded No16, took out Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (5), 6-4 to book a third round with either Aleksandra Krunic or Sara Errani. Serena faces home favourite Heather Watson who is back in the last 32 here for the first time since 2012.

    World No4 Maria Sharapova skipped past Dutchwoman Richel Hogenkamp 6-3, 6-1 in 64 minutes to set up a third round with No29 seed Irina-Camelia Begu.

    Ex-world No1 Victoria Azarenka and Kristina Mladenovic both earned victories to book a last 32 meeting against each other.

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