Ana Invanovic’s struggle to get back up to the top of the game continued in the first round at the Pattaya Open when she lost a tight three setter to the Japanese player Ayumi Morita, who is ranked on the WTA list at number 60. Ivanovic, the top seed in this tournament, had a two to one head to head advantage, but Morita took the first set easily at 6-3. Ivanovic got into her stride in the second set, taking it 7-5, but Morita was not finished yet and took the decider again at 6-3. Once again it was the erratic Ivanovic serve which played a large part of her loss in this match.
Also in the first round, the veteran Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, now ranked at 55, took on the Russian Olga Puchkova, ranked at 111. Hanruchova is another of the WTA’s players who is having an up and down time on tour at present, which was clearly shown in her three set victory over Puchkova which she won 6-1 3-6 6-0 in just over an hour and a half.
The second seeded Russian ranked at 15 Maria Kirilenko, played the six foot three qualifier from Uzbekistan, Akgul Amanmuradova, who is ranked at 148. These two players had not met in the past and the final score was a close 6-3 7-5. The Uzbek hit ten aces and four double faults to the Russian’s five aces and six doubles, but it was Kirilenko’s superior precision shots and greater experience at the top of the game that in the end was the undoing of Amanmuradova.
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