Petra v "Aussie" Ana

Now that Kim Clijsters has married an American and finally relinquished the tired Aussie Kim tag, Adam Scott's girlfriend Ana Ivanovic is the closest player outside of our country that we can claim as a token Australian. We will provided she keeps winning anyway. That may well be short lived should second seed Petra Kvitova have her say in matters on Rod Laver Arena today.

Ana from Serbia did her job as first cab off the rank and delivered her fare correctly 1-0. Petra performed doubly well, delivering her own booking and snatching Ana's next by sneaking in front of her when she was catching a glance at in the crowd to see if Adam had stopped by. The power and precision of the left hand driven ground strokes were once more on display for the crowd to admire and for Ana to despise. Serves were held until the Czech lead over Serbia amounted to 4-2, and at this juncture Kvitova chose to pounce a second time.

A flying Kvitova backhand

Serving for the set is becoming quite the habit for the young star, who with a win today will jump back to virtual number one. Petra did win the set 6-2 and another Serbian disappointment to follow the Jankovic nightmare the night before seemed the likeliest outcome.

Set two began as set one with Ana brightly winning her serve, and indeed her second serve. She had chances to break Petra, but did not have heavy enough equipment in her tennis bag to make the final punch stick. It was left to Kvitova to manage the break, and lead 3-2, and it was déjà vu all over again. Not quite though because a more resilient Ivanovic now rallied competitively with the number two seed, and remained the single break in arrears, and within statistical reach. At 4-3, Kvitova committed rare errors, and Ana added a slashing forehand pass for break point, a crisis nonchalantly dealt with at the net with a forehand put away, followed up with a brilliant touch volley leaving Ana stranded kilometres away.

Still not impressed, Ivanovic watched more errors fly off the Czech racquet before a final signature forehand down the line with Ana marveling from one of the seats in the lower deck, sealed the game and the 5-3 lead.

Ana, as Jelena Jankovic did the night before, played some of her best tennis in the closing moments of the set, and held serve yet again, the winning point of the eight game providing the funniest match moment with a complete air shot from Petra. However, the last laugh may be Petra's as she would be serving for a quarter final berth next at 5-4

Eerily like Caro Wozniacki, the job proved too tough, and games were 5-5. Where would this end up? My guess remained Rod Laver Arena still, but a third set increasingly on the cards. An easy hold for Ana and if Petra was to avoid that third set, she needed to win a tie break.

The tie break was on serve at 1-2 with Ana's two serves to come - her second double fault for the breaker coupled with a wonderful back hand winner from Kvitova set the trend, and another brilliant ground stroke put the issue beyond doubt, Petra ultimately winning the tie break 7-2 and the match 6-2 7-6 - Errani or Zheng her opponent in the quarters.