Brisbane, Jan 5 (DPA) Ana Ivanovic won her first match since mid-August as the Serb defeated Australian Jelena Dokic 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 Monday to start with a welcome victory at the Brisbane International.
Ivanovic, a former French Open champion who briefly stood number one in the world after that 2008 triumph on clay, thwarted the hopes of the host nation and 2009 Australian Open quarter-finalist Dokic.
Like Ivanovic, the Serb-born Dokic had suffered through a poor 2009, fighting off injury and illness for much of the year.
Ivanovic, dating Aussie golfer Adam Scott, has been in the country for more than month is well acclimatized to the steaming conditions in sub-tropical Brisbane.
The victory took one hour, 40 minutes, with Dokic waking up for 5-0 in the second set on her way to levelling the match.
But Ivanovic, her ranking down to 21st, re-established normal service in the third, breaking three times to claim victory.
“I’m pleased with the result,” said the winner. “I still have a bunch of things to improve but I try to relax and not look ahead and take one match at a time.
“There have lots of positive signs out there for me today. My goal is to get back to the top 10.”
Dokic, the home success story of the Open in 2009, characterized her performance as “OK.”
“I could’ve been better in a lot of things I did. My serve let me down in the third set and I missed a lot of chances in the first,” she said.
“Obviously I’m disappointed with the chances I missed. I’ve got to go out there and practise and work hard.”
On the men’s side, France’s Richard Gasquet won his first match since being cleared of cocaine doping charges, defeating Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 as the Finn made a comeback from five months out in 2009 with injury and swine flu.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin was making her comeback after reversing her 2008 retirement, facing Russian second seed Nadia Petrova.
rounak