Ana Ivanovic‘s 2016 is not really hitting off, as after her first-round exit at the ASB Classic in Auckland, the Serb waved goodbye after her first match at the Apia International Sydney. Jelena Jankovic, on the other hand, rebounded from a first-round exit in Brisbane and displayed solid form in her Sydney opener.
Karolina Pliskova’s wicked serve helped the Czech to dominantly beat Ivanovic 6-4 6-2. Fourteen aces by Pliskova had no counterpart in Ivanovic’s game and the Serb converted just one out of six break points she earned. Ivanovic will now head to the Australian Open with no victories under her belt in 2016.
By the way, Ivanovic used to always launch her new season’s apparel in Melbourne, while this year she introduced her Adidas Spring Adizero Dress and the collection’s Barricade Classic Bounce Shoes already in Auckland. Actually, now I see that many tennis apparel companies have started doing the same.
Ivanovic’s compatriot JJ looked stunning in the Fila Illusion Dress with nice elastic orange criss-cross straps in the back and her game was pretty much constant. With 70% first-serve percentage, JJ showed Coco Vandeweghe the exit door, 6-3 6-4, but not before Coco made us laugh 🙂
Slip ups be like pic.twitter.com/eE2zvTIgkI
— WTA Reactions (@WTAreactions) January 10, 2016
Sixth seed Timea Bacsinszky was the only seeded player to lose on Sunday, falling to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 1-6 6-1 6-3, while two big stars couldn’t even make it to the court — reigning champion Petra Kvitova withdrew with a stomach virus and this week’s Shenzhen winner Agnieszka Radwanska withdrew because of a leg injury.
Thank you, John Bolan, for the photos!
I relaly like Jelena’s dress
CLT, me too. And the price is really good now.