Top seed Ana Ivanovic won an epic, three-set battle against Nathalie Dechy at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
Ivanovic battled back to win the second round match 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 10-8 after over three hours of play.
Dechy held two match points against Ivanovic in the second set, but determination and the help of a lucky netcord on the second match point helped Ivanovic remain alive.
It was a brilliant performance by both players, especially Dechy, a former Top 15 player now ranked at No. 97.
Ivanovic, who is attempting to win her second consecutive Grand Slam title and hold onto the No. 1 ranking, will play China’s Jie Zheng in the third round.
Was this a high quality match? I had to follow live scoring. Stupid job!
Hi Will,
I didn’t get to see the whole match, but the part I saw was fairly high quality. It was a gutsy performance by Dechy, but Ivanovic was simply too good, especially toward the end of the third set.
On the one hand, I was concerned that Ivanovic had to battle that hard against a player barely in the Top 100, but I was impressed by how she held her nerves in check.
The Ivanovic who choked at the French Open last season is clearly buried in the past.
I have to say the this was a case of Dechy losing the match rather than Ivanovic winning it. Dechy played well while Ivanovic barely managed to get through, thanks to that lucky netcord. I don’t think she is a good contender for the title like what many people say. It was a near double-(top-ranked)Serbian defeat, that would have been great!!!
[...] the current world number one, barely escaped her second round match against Nathalie Dechy on Wednesday, but today she was not lucky enough to escape with a mediocre [...]