Willamses March On, Ivanovic Falters!

August 28th, 2008 New York City, USA

Day 4 of the US Open was quite the shocker on the women's side with the top seed and number one player in the world, Ana Ivanovic losing early at a Grand Slam for the second consecutive time. Ivanovic has been plagued with a thumb injury since Wimbledon and it has shown with her lackluster play over the summer. It just hasn't been the same Ana Ivanovic since her Roland Garros win in early June, perhaps the pressure has grown too great for her? Today Ivanovic experienced a lost to number 188 in the world, Julie Coin of France. Coin came out firing big serves and ground strokes, winning the first set 6-3. Ivanovic barely came back in the second set winning it 6-4. Once again in the third, Coin went up 5-2, before slightly having a mishap and after three match points closing it out 6-3 in the third. Coin moves on to face Mauresmo while Ivanovic goes home early once again to contemplate what to do for the rest of the year.

The Williams sisters had no trouble in their second round matches today. Venus was up second on Arthur Ashe Stadium against an older opponent, Rossana De Los Rios. It was a very lopsided match with Venus just overpowering and out hitting her opponent. Venus moves on with a 6-0, 6-3 victory. Serena Williams had a similar match, being very precise in her match, hitting hard and hitting less than 15 unforced errors. Serena steam rolled her way to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Elena Vesnina. Dinara Safina who is a heavy favorite now to get to the Semi-Finals also won her second round match over Roberta Vinci. Safina is looking very strong so far during this US Open.

Tomorrow third round matches begin with Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova back in action all trying to make the final 16.

Results:

Arthur Ashe Stadium:

(6)Dinara Safina d. Roberta Vinci - 6-4, 6-3
(7)Venus Williams d. Rossana De Los Rios - 6-0, 6-3
Julie Coin d. (1)Ana Ivanovic - 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
(4)Serena Williams d. Elena Vesnina - 6-1, 6-1

Grandstand:

(17)Alize Cornet d. Bethanie Mattek - 7-6(5), 6-1
(32)Amelie Mauresmo d. Kaia Kanepi - 2-6, 6-4, 6-0

Court 4:

(27)Alona Bondarenko d. Sabine Lisicki - 6-4, 1-6. 6-4

Top 10 Seeds:

1. Ana Ivanovic - Lost Round 2 (Coin)
2. Jelena Jankovic - Round 3
3. Svetlana Kuznetsova - Round 3
4. Serena Williams - Round 3
5. Elena Dementieva - Round 3
6. Dinara Safina - Round 3
7. Venus Williams - Round 3
8. Vera Zvonareva - Lost Round 2 (Perebiynis)
9. Agnieszka Radwanksa - Round 3
10. Anna Chakvetadze - Lost Round 1 (Makarova)