March 25, 2013 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg
Ana Ivanovic and Sara Errani both advanced to the Round of 16 at the Sony Open Tennis in Miami on Sunday, as the 12th-seeded Ivanovic was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Errani was a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Simona Halep. Ivanovic and Kuznetsova were playing for the 11th time, as Ivanovic improved to an 8-3 record in their head-to-head series.
"I really had to stay focused on every point and stay in the moment, and I’m very happy I was able to win tonight," Ivanovic said. "I always love coming here and competing here. It’s always fun. And this year I really felt I was playing good tennis coming in, so I’m really enjoying my time here this year."
Ivanovic will look to match her 2005 quarterfinal performance in Miami and advances to face Errani. Errani is the WTA’s match win leader this year, scoring her 23rd match win of the year. Agnieszka Radwanska is second on the list and two wins behind the Italian with 21 wins. Ivanovic leads Errani in their head-to-head, 2-1, though Errani did win their most recent meeting.
"I think I played a really good match—I was very focused from the beginning and it went very well for me," Errani said. "I did very well in pretty much everything today—from the baseline I was running very fast, and I had to be running fast because she was always trying to push me from the backhand, but I was at every ball and was able to take it from my forehand a lot on that side."
