China Open
Ana impressively reached the semi-finals of the China Open before ultimately losing to world No. 17 Timea Bacsinszky in the last four players stage. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old may look back upon a very satisfying campaign in Beijing, in what was the last of five Premier Mandatory tournaments this season – the category just below the four Grand Slams.
Relying on a rock solid forehand all week long, Ana reached the third round without dropping a set. She confidently ousted Australia’s Casey Dellacqua in the opening round before facing tennis icon Venus Williams in round two.
Williams entered the China Open having won the Wuhan tournament last week, but wasn’t let any chance by a superior Ana. Yet from the first exchanges on, Ana dominated the contest and unleashed winner after winner from both wings. She claimed the first set with some great ball striking in a tiebreak, fell 2-0 behind in the second but then phenomenally reeled off six games to book a magnificent straight-set victory over the five-time Wimbledon champion.
With Svetlana Kuznetsova, another double Grand Slam champion awaited in the third round. The Russian always proves a stern adversary, although Ana had won ten of their thirteen meetings. The former world No. 1 managed to reproduce her fine form and scored a hard-fought three-set victory. She sailed on to conquer another Russian in the quarter-finals by beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in what was again another copybook win from Ana.
Ana began her semi-final against Timea Bacsinszky with the same flair, winning the first, but thereafter her play seemed to be affected by a lower back injury that had already bothered her all week long.
However, Ana gamely fought back from a 5-1 arrears in set two and even held two break opportunities to level at 5-all, but was unfortunately unable to convert. The 27-year-old could not recover from that disappointment while on the other side of the net, Bacsinszky maximally capitalized. The Swiss won sixteen of the last seventeen points to seal victory after a thrilling two hours and 20 minute contest.
“I felt like that second set was a breaking point of the match, because I was creating lot of opportunities for myself and I just couldn't execute the important points. I was actually in a good shape to win that first set, then had chances in the second... Hopefully, I can go a step further next year.”
Results
R1: Ana – C. Dellacqua (WTA-55) 6-4, 6-0
R2: Ana – V. Williams (WTA-38) 7-6(3), 6-2
R3: Ana – S. Kuznetsova (WTA-14) 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
QF: Ana – A. Pavlyuchenkova (WTA-32) 6-3, 7-5
SF: Ana – T. Bacsinszky (WTA-17) 7-5, 4-6, 1-6
