Ivanovic Cruises to Aegon Classic Crown
Top-seeded Ana Ivanovic defeated Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova in the Aegon Classic final on Sunday to notch the first grass-court title of her career. She cruised past Zahlavova-Strycova 6-3, 6-2 in a little over an hour in what was a very cleanly played match.
After Ivanovic had her serve broken early in the first set, she regained her focus and used her return game to crawl back into the match. She put the Czech native Zahlavova-Strycova back on her heels by attacking the net, following some excellent ground strokes.
She won the next four games to go up 4-1 in the opening set, and after both players held serve, the Serb took the opener 6-3.
Zahlavova-Strycova took an early 1-0 second set lead after holding serve, but the former world number one Ivanovic quickly reeled off five straight games to go up 5-1 and all but put the match to rest. She would serve out the rest and capture the set 6-3, earning her the straight set victory.
While the Czech played a very good, clean game, especially since it was her first title match of her career, the powerful Ivanovic was too much for her to handle. Ivanovic smashed 22 winners to just 12 for Zahlavova-Strycova, while each committed 19 unforced errors.
“Ana was playing really well—I want to wish her good luck at Wimbledon,” said Zahlavova-Strycova. “For me, I enjoyed myself so much this week. The crowd was amazing.”
The victory is the 37th of Ivanovic’s career and third of this season as her attention will now shift to Wimbledon.
"On grass you really don't have time to hesitate," said Ivanovic. "I tried to shorten my swing and move forwards. You really have to go after your shots. It's important to be clear in your mind."
