Ana produced one of her best performances of the season as she brushed aside the challenge of 16th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round of the China Open in Beijing.Heading into the contest, Ana held a 5-3 head-to-head advantage over the two-time Grand Slam champion. However, their last meeting, in February 2010, had been very one-sided as the Russian beat Ana 6-1, 6-4 during a Fed Cup tie in Belgrade.
Ana was clearly unaffected by that memory. She comfortably held in the opening game and piled the pressure on her opponent in the next game with some flashy returns. She broke and then held again to lead 3-0.
The 23-year-old served strongly throughout and dominated not only with her forehand but her backhand too. Kuznetsova had no answer to the former world No.1's controlled aggression.
Ana was all over the Kuznetsova second serve in particular, winning a whopping 75 per cent of points on it. She was broken twice herself, but she seized all five of her break point chances - a most satisfying statistic for any player.
After taking the first set Ana did not let up a jot. Her smooth groundstrokes continued to delight the evening crowd on the Lotus Court, despite the chilly conditions that caused Ana to wear a top over her tennis dress.
Ana led 5-1 and served for the match, but was broken by the Russian. However, it proved to be nothing more than a mere blip, as the 2008 French Open champion solidified a most impressive win in the following game.
"Since putting my new team in place a few months ago, I feel that I've been moving in the right direction," said Ana.
"Today was proof of that. I was very happy with my game and I am really looking forward to the next challenge."
Ana will meet either third seed Vera Zvonareva or Czech Klara Zakopalova in the third round on Wednesday.
