Miraculous Myskina into the fourth roundIn an unexpectedly easy third round match, Myskina beat Ana Ivanovic in straight sets 6-2 6-3 on Court 1 at Roland Garros. Both players reached that round without losing a set and Ivanovic was the favourite for the bookies.
Myskina had a great start into the match when she broke the young Serbian right away. Despite Ivanovic´s trademark serves – she´s the stats leader in fast serves with 194 km/h (!) – Myskina broke the young player again in the 5th game to gain a 5-1 lead. Ivanovic managed to win another game but Nastya took the set after 28 minutes 6-2.
Ivanovic hit too many unforced errors, she was not moving well and therefore she was an easy opponent for the Russian today. Nastya hit steady groundstrokes and was never put under pressure by Ivanovic in ralles especially since she was beautifully mixing up the shots, causing Ivanovic sometimes to run around like a rabbit on the other side.
The second set resembled the first one when Nastya again broke Ivanovic and then hardly ever looked back. The Russian had a chance to break the Serbian in the 7th game at 4-2 but could not convert any of the three. However at 5-3 on Ivanovic´s serve, Nastya rallied to three match points. The Russian converted her second matchpoint when Ivanovic put a forehand outsides the line. Nastya was totally excited after the matchpoint, she had a huge smile when she ran to the net before getting another bear hug by Boris Jelzin who is in France just for the tournament. The former politician even had Nastya signed his hat.
This is clearly Nastya´s best match of the year so far, staying focused throughout the whole match, hitting more winners than her opponent, having a first serve percentage of 71. The Russian was covering the court very well and it was a pleasure to see that her great sense of anticipation came back today.
Myskina will need the same good game when she wants to advance to the quarters as Justine Henin-Hardenne will be her next opponent. It is the match between the two past French Open champs and it´s the first meeting since the awful Olympics´04 semis which Nastya lost 5-7 7-5 6-8 despite a 5-1 lead in the last set. Overall the players have met 8 times already. The Belgian leads 6-2 and is generally considered as one of Nastya´s most feared opponents (the other two being Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo). Henin-Hardenne will be the favourite in this match especially on clay. On the other side, Nastya always managed to trouble the former number one as their games basically neutralize each other. Check back for the time and date of that awesome 4th round match up!
