Naomi Broady, the British No 3, pulled off the biggest win of her career as she beat a woman ranked in the top 20 for the first time, defeating former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
Broady, who is ranked No 122 in the world and had to win three matches just to make the draw, defeated the 16th-ranked Ivanovic with the aid of her thumping serve, firing down 14 aces in a 7-5, 6-4 victory in 1 hr 22 min. That helped her win 74 per cent of points on her first serve and, in a big-hitting match, she looked in control against the second seed.
Broady said: “Some of my friends don’t follow tennis at all, so I’ve messaged them all saying, 'I’ve won’. I’ve had to explain to them that I’ve won a good match, but they just don’t get it. So, back down to earth with a bump. They are more bothered that I played [Bastian] Schweinsteiger’s girlfriend, I think.”
Ivanovic said: “Naomi’s a tricky player and it’s never easy playing those kind of opponents, especially in the first round. She served well and I also thought, with the groundstrokes, she was hitting them extremely well. So many times I was caught off guard and didn’t know which way she was going. I felt that once I managed to get into rallies I was on top of her, but it didn’t happen as often as I hoped.
“I felt Naomi was using the angles really well and it was hard to read her serve, there were no patterns. It was very tough, I don’t remember the last time I was aced that many times.”
Broady, 25, plays wild-card Jelena Ostapenko, of Latvia, in the second round. Ivanovic, meanwhile, has asked for a wild card for next week’s tournament in Sydney to get up to speed for the Australian Open the following week.
British No 1 Johanna Konta was unable to match Broady’s success, being knocked out of the Shenzhen Open by qualifier Qiang Wang. Konta, who is ranked No 48 in the world. Konta lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to the Chinese in a match that lasted a little under two hours.
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