Ana recorded a confidence-boosting 6-4, 6-3 victory over Germany's Julia Goerges in the first round of the AEGON International in Eastbourne.
22-year-old Goerges is one of the revelations of the first half of the 2011 season. She reached her career-highest ranking of No. 16 last week and won the prestigious tournament in Stuttgart.
Here in Eastbourne, she was the one in command during the earliest stages of the match. After three consecutive breaks, the German was the first to hold serve and she pulled away into a 3-1 lead.
Ana stepped up the pressure on Goerges’ serve and levelled at 4-4, as she finally converted her break opportunities. Goerges was in a tizzy and accumulated unforced errors near the end of the set. Ana gratefully accepted the gifts and with solid play, the 23-year-old pocketed the set, winning four games in a row.
Ana had chances to dispatch the German early in the second set, but Goerges was determined to keep the contest going. However, Ana proved to be the more consistent player and she discharged a flurry of well-placed return winners and forced the decisive break in the eighth game of the second set.
At 2-5, Goerges served to stay in the match and partly thanks to an extremely lucky net-cord ball, she succeeded. This was the only game of the match in which Ana could not enforce a break opportunity – a fine reflection of the excellent way she was returning today.
Ana served out the match some moments later as her first match point turned out to be sufficient to triumph in 75 minutes.
“I am very pleased with the way I have played”, said Ana in her on-court interview. “The transition from clay to grass courts is probably the most difficult of the season, so I’m happy that everything turns out well.
"I really enjoyed competing here with this great atmosphere. I thought it would be windy on court but in fact, the weather conditions were beautiful so I hope it stays like this the whole week.”
