Ana suffered a 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 loss to world No.24 Yanina Wickmayer in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. Both players won as many points (106) during the match, but the Belgian showed greater consistency and clinched victory after two hours and ten minutes.
Ana was struggling to hold serve in the early stages of the match, but was the first to break in the third game. Wickmayer, on the other hand, could not convert any of her seven break chances in the first set, while Ana exploited two of her three break opportunities. She flung winners all over the court and served out the set in style, winning the pivotal game to love.
Wickmayer began to play more aggressively in the second set,. The Belgian reined in her unforced errors and, as Ana hit two more double faults in the sixth game, Wickmayer broke for the first time in the match and surged into a 4-2 lead.
Ana had to serve to stay in the set at 5-4 and seemed to accomplish that objective smoothly. However, Wickmayer fought back and Ana had to pull out a forehand cross court winner and winning serve to get rid of a set point, and seal the game to enforce a tiebreak.
With a huge forehand return winner, the Belgian wangled two set points at 6-4. Ana thought she had wiped out the first with an ace, but after umpire Eva Asderaki checked the mark, the ball was called out. Ana’s second delivery also flew long and Wickmayer consequently wrapped up the set.
Due to a tenth and eleventh double fault of the match, Ana was broken in the opening game of the decider. The former world No.1 lost the consistency she showed during the first set and was netting too many forehands. She couldn’t recover the break or resist the Belgian's passage into round three.
