Tennis News

Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic faced minimal resistance en route to the third round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and she will now meet Karolina Pliskova for the second time on the WTA tour. Pliskova leads the series 1-0 following a straight sets victory at last year’s United States Open. Check out the Ivanovic v Pliskova Head to Head.

Follow the match live here: Ivanovic v Pliskova Live Stream

The Serbian star reached the third round in Dubai without dropping a set so far in the tournament. Her second round victory against Germany’s Sabine Lisicki was particularly strong, as she won the match 6-0, 6-3. She hit 16 winners to close out the match in 1 hour and five minutes, and appeared to have recovered from the foot injury that plagued her in Melbourne.

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Ivanovic will come up against Karolina Pliskova, who defeated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-4, 6-2 to reach the third round of the tournament. It was her 14th match win of the season so far and highlights the exceptional form the Czech player is in right now. She converted six break points and won 65% of her first service points to close out the match in 1 hour and 25 minutes.

“She’s playing really well lately, and it’s great to have new faces in woman’s game,” Ivanovic said when asked about Pliskova. “She’s definitely a different kind of player to other girls. She’s tall, has big serve, quite flat shots. I lost to her in US Open, so hopefully I can get a better game plan tomorrow and prevail.”

This marks the second time these two competitors will meet on the professional tour, and is a match-up that is just as intriguing the second time around. Ivanovic is yet to find her way in 2015 following a surprisingly premature exit from the Aussie Open. She has, however, looked sharp in Dubai, and will look to avenge her 7-5 6-4 loss to Pliskova at the US Open.

Prediction: Karolina Pliskova in Three Sets