FIRST DAY OF WOMEN MASTERS

The night was Ana Ivanovic. The Serbian player deployed throughout their aggressiveness to prevail 6-1, 4-6 and 7-5 in two hours and 16 minutes, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who spent this course as the number two in the world, in a magnificent party to both sides of the network.

At Roland Garros finalist and semifinalist at Wimbledon, Ivanovic lifted a beautiful warm day, in which neither nor Henin Sharapova managed to connect with an audience that went far to fill the Telefonica Arena.

The crowd still walks lazy. A womens event, and without Spanish lacks the pull of the Masters Series to be played in the same situation two weeks ago, with the powerful hook Rafael Nadal. The tier lost pallor as the afternoon progressed.

Ticket sales goes better than the last course and it is expected that in the long weekend of Madrids appointment brings together the eight best players of the season will attract the interest they truly deserve. Today, the first presence of Serena Williams in Madrid involves a complaint added. We also face the last chance to witness this spectacle live.

The colorful ads of Qatar Telecom represent the evidence that the tournament will be played in Doha next three courses before moving in Istanbul in 2011. However, Madrid will have female tennis since 2009, with the combined tournament of the Magic Box, on the eve of Roland Garros.

Debutante in the tournament, Ivanovic celebrated its twentieth birthday cake furnished with a foot of track, after a triumph which is a clear manifestation of intent. Not only have come here to take lessons, but will skip to the fight for the title and, incidentally, try jumping from the fourth to second place. He took the initiative from the first ball and, under the continuing endorsement of his right hand, arrinconó at times to a rival who had beaten in three of their four clashes.

Kuznetsova had to multiply the risks, particularly with the service. Shortly took the tennis Belgrade introduced in a couple of meters inside the track to take advantage of the first return. Its symptoms bisoñez, irregular selection of blows and the precariousness of service are nothing but good news, the certainty that the margin of improvement is still very wide, that their conditions are still to be developed.

Henin and Sharapova, authoritative

Henin won 6-1 and 7-6 (4) to another newcomer, Anna Chakvetadze; Invoked callus who dispute this competition for the seventh time. Sharapova appeared for the fourth consecutive time, and does so with much less noise than in previous steps. With just 20 years, the resident tennis in Florida no longer cause the clutter of his early days. Champions tournament with 17 years, months after obtaining the victory at Wimbledon, his career has not passed at the speed that those records seemed to suggest.

"This time it came with fewer matches than the previous one, in different circumstances," said the Russian, who reaparecía after almost a month without competition due to an illness in the shoulder. Unlike 2006, his presence in Madrid is now something innocuous. In order sport has not enjoyed one of his best seasons, with only a title in San Diego, and two finals, Australia and Birmingham. In matters of glamor has happened over Ivanovic, as much as we can not emularle in competitive even in early returns that has been able to get his palm.

Maybe just a minor degree of distraction Sharapova what you really need to give a boost to his racket. Yesterday samples left many doubts despite imposed by 6-4 and 7-5 to Hantuchova reborn in the fifth match point.