Ana gained swift revenge for last week's defeat to Ayumi Morita by beating the Japanese 6-1, 7-6 in the second round of the Mercury Insurance Open in Carlsbad, California. The 23-year-old recovered from a 0-5 deficit in the second set, the first time she has done so in her WTA career.
Ana had confessed to suffering from nerves during her loss to Morita in Stanford last week, but she showed no sign of them as she stormed through the opening set 6-1, winning a whopping 67 per cent of points.
The tables were turned in the second set as Morita raced into a 5-0 lead. At this point Ana called for some on-court coaching from her new mentor Nigel Sears. Whatever he said clearly did the trick, as she won five straight games to level the set.
The fifth seed, looking very pumped up, forced a tiebreak, which she won 7-5.
Ana will face Italian Alberta Brianti in the third round on Thursday. Ana won the only previous meeting between the pair, 6-3, 6-2 at the 2008 Australian Open.
World No.56 Brianti won through to round three by the remarkable scoreline of 0-6, 7-6, 7-6 against Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson. She had beaten 10th seed Flavia Pennetta in round one.
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