Tennis
Ivanovic powers to victory
2012-12-31 07:34
Perth - Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic
combined for a 2-0 Serbian sweep to start their 2013 Hopman Cup campaign
with a pair of straight-set wins over Italian opposition.
Ivanovic,
who has been in Perth since December 20 with her parents and other
family members, was ruthless in her demolition of Francesca Schiavone in
a battle of former French Open winners, 6-0, 6-4.
Djokovic
suffered a freak incident when a low stadium hoarding at the side of the
court gave way as the Serb was signing post-match autographs, with a
wooden board scraping his legs before he got out of the way with no
apparent serious damage.
Djokovic took to the court little more
than 12 hours since arriving in western Australia from Abu Dhabi where
he won an exhibition.
The world number one said he got a few
hours of sleep and then squeezed in a quick morning hit at the Perth
arena before taking to the court for a win over Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4.
The Serb admitted that he was feeling the effects of his dash halfway around the world.
"It
felt like sleep-walking," joked Djokovic, who is hoping along with
Ivanovic to nudge their nation over the line after Serbia lost the
Hopman final in 2008 against the US.
"But as the match went on, I
got my rhythm. I broke the ice after the first set and I felt a bit
better. It cost me twice the effort.
"I also had a tough opponent, it was good to win in straight sets."
Djokovic
won the first set with a break but found himself in strife as he had to
save four break points in the eight game of the second to escape to
5-3.
Seppi salvaged a pair of Djokovic match points in the next
game before the Serb ended the afternoon after 84 minutes on his fourth
winning opportunity a game later.
Ivanovic broke five times and
fired 21 winners against Schiavone to earn her point. "The first game
was a bit crucial, I managed to hold out after seeing a few break points
and then I really got into the match.
"I didn't do much wrong in
that first set, in the second set she got tougher, she started playing
better. I'm really happy I managed to win on Monday, it really means a lot."