Ana Ivanovic Ends Slump with Linz Title

Ana Ivanovic ended a dismal recent stretch by winning the WTA event in Linz, Austria on Sunday. Ivanovic crushed Verz Zvonareva 6-2, 6-1 in a mere 50 minutes to take the title.
The victory puts an end to a significant drought for Ivanovic that was most likely due-at least in part-to a thumb injury. After a remarkable first half of the season in which she won the French Open and became No. 1 in the world, Ivanovic’s 2008 campaign took a drastic turn for the worse. The Serb lost early on at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, as well as in Montreal. She could not even play in the Beijing Olympics due to the thumb problem. Even after all that she went on to suffer shockingly premature exits in Tokyo, Beijing and Moscow.
Ivanovic started taking steps back to prominence, however, last week in Zurich, Switzerland, where she fell  to eventual champion Venus Williams in a close three-set semifinal. It was Ivanovic’s first semifinal appearance since Roland Garros.
She did a lot better than the semifinals in Linz and only had one real scare en route to the title. Ivanovic survived Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5 in the third set in their semifinal clash. Prior to that, the No. 1 seed eased past Sybille Bammer and in-form Flavia Pennetta.
Overall it was a tournament with very few surprises. Seven of the eight seeds reached the quarterfinals, the only woman failing to join the group being No. 4 seed Patty Schnyder, who was upset by Alona Bondarenko in the second round. Bondarenko fell in her next match to sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli, who was subsequently blown away 6-0, 6-1 by Zvonareva.
While Ivanovic took the title in Linz, two No. 1 seeds on the men’s side also hoisted trophies. Roger Federer got the best of David Nalbandian in Basel and Andy Murray crushed qualifier Andrey Golubev in St. Petersburg. Lyon’s top seed, Andy Roddick, failed to win the other ATP event, but that title was still captured by one of the tournament favorites. Indoor-court guru Robin Soderling took out Julien Benneteau in three sets. Soderling has appeared in nine ATP finals, all indoors.