Wimbledon
Ana was eliminated in the opening round at The Championships in Wimbledon following a surprising 6-2, 7-5 defeat against world No. 223 Ekaterina Alexandrova. The former semi-finalist revealed afterwards that she struggled with the aftermath of a right wrist injury that she incurred during her participation at the Mallorca Open.
Alexandrova reached the main draw of the tournament for the first time in her career. To do so, she passed three rounds of qualifying in which she survived two marathon matches, with final scores of 14-12 and 13-11 in the deciding set.
Already from the very beginning, unforced errors were omnipresent in the contest. The pair kept pace until 2-2, but two somewhat sloppy games from Ana put Alexandrova into a 4-2 ascendancy.
The 23rd seed couldn’t hold serve from a 40-0 lead in the seventh game and she fell consequently a double break behind. The Russian grabbed her chance and wrapped up the opening set on her serve, not facing a single break point during the 24 minutes of play.
Ana started the second act in better fashion and after holding serve in the opening game, she piled up the pressure on the Alexandrova delivery. The Russian however escaped unscathed and levelled for 1-all. Thereafter, three of the four following games went against the server and it was the Russian who emerged with a break advantage, leading 4-2.
The former world No. 1 fought back to level things up at 4-4, but she crucially surrendered her serve once more at the worst possible moment in the eleventh game. Three chances to undo the break went lost as it was eventually Alexandrova who sealed the contest with an ace on her first match point.
Results
R1: Ana vs. E. Alexandrova (WTA-223) 2-6, 5-7
