Ivanovic beats Kuznetsova, Schiavone out in Rome

Ana Ivanovic

Ana Ivanovic overcame a potentially sticky opener as she beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4 6-3 in the stand-out first round match in Rome.  Ivanovic had lost to the Russian in Fed Cup action several weeks ago, but she produced a fine performance to make it into the second round.  Francesca Schiavone was the only seed to fall on day one as she was beaten by Ekaterina Makarova, 6-3 6-4.  Schiavone's form has dipped significantly over 2012 and a return to her beloved red clay has been unable to reverse her fortunes.  I would not be surprised to hear news of a retirement very soon...

In other matches, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had one of her best wins in 2012 with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Ksenia Pervak.  Pavluychenkova lost to the Kazakh world number 38 in Doha earlier this year, but she has started to piece things together on her favourite surface.  She will now play Petra Kvitova in an interesting second round match.  All four of their previous encounters have gone to three sets and I think Kvitova will have her work cut out to get past Pavlyuchenkova.  

The German duo of Angelique Kerber and Julia Goerges also won through but both were made to work hard for a place in the second round.  Goerges overcame a second set wobble to defeat Aleksandra Wozniak, 6-1 6-7 6-3, meanwhile Kerber displayed a typically gritty performance to get past Anastasia Rodionova, 4-6 7-5 6-2 in a shocking match!

I have finally managed to get my pages working so you can keep track of how my predictions are doing in the WTA and ATP tournaments in Rome.  The coverage on Sky Sports and Eurosport is excellent so i'm hoping to catch some of the evening action throughout the course of this week :-)