STANFORD, CALIF — The last time they met was in Zurich in
2008. Ana Ivanovic was just a few months removed from her Roland Garros title and was comfortably camped inside the top 5. Marion Bartoli, then ranked No. 16 and struggling with her confidence, came out on the short end of a 6-2, 6-4 decision – the Frenchwoman’s third loss in as many matches against her Serbian foe.
But that was a different time.
Today Ivanovic is battling to regain her former No. 1 form, and has plummeted to No. 63. Bartoli, meanwhile, has climbed to No. 14 and is playing with a renewed sense of purpose. And on Thursday night at the Bank of the West Classic it showed, as the hard-hitting defending champion finally notched her first win over Ivanovic 6-3, 6-4 in one hour, 16 minutes in advancing to the quarterfinals.
Bartoli called it a great buildup for the U.S. Open.
“I’m really pleased to have those kinds of matches early in the summer season,” she said. “Those kinds of matches are tough. You have to play well and focus on the big points. I’m really happy to have that kind of match under my belt and come up with the win.”
“It helps that my ranking is better than hers mentally,” added Bartoli, who landed a mere 52 percent of her first serves but made up for that with her aggressive two-fists-off-both-wings baseline play. “I’m moving a lot better, so when she hits the ball hard I give it back with interest.”
Bartoli did her best to stay away from Ivanovic’s go-to weapon – her punishing forehand — although the 25-year-old stopped short of revealing any trade secrets.
“I’m not sure I’m going to give you my strategy,” Bartoli laughed. “It’s always a balance. You can’t really say, ‘Okay, I’m going to play everything to the backhand,’ because she’s been No. 1. She’s going to adapt very fast. You have to mix it up all the time and make her guess all the time. The main thing I needed tonight was to focus on my power. I needed to hit the ball hard.”
“It was a lot different than any other match we played,” said Ivanovic, who fell to 12-13 on the year. “I was actually expecting more rallies. I was looking to get into a rhythm, but she wasn’t giving it to me. I felt kind of slow out there, kind of sluggish. She’s playing a lot better and her serves were coming through a lot faster, especially her second serve. It was very hard to read them.”
The ’01 U.S. Open Junior titlist, Bartoli would love nothing more than to go deep into the second week on the fast hard courts of Flushing Meadows.
“It’s my favorite Grand Slam,” she said. “When I won the junior title there, I remember saying to myself, ‘I want one day to be here playing the women’s final on Saturday night.’ But everyone wants to be there, and there are only two players who can make it. And when Serena Williams is there, I think there is only one player who can make it. I hope that one day I will be able to do it.”
Bartoli will next face No. 8 seed Victoria Azarenka, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Melanie Oudin.
