Ivanovic makes quick work of Pe’er

Pe’er was her own worse enemy, committing 23 unforced errors while hitting just 6 winners, claiming just an embarrassing 27 % of the points on her serve.

By ALLON SINAI
SHAHAR PE’ER returns the ball to Ana Ivanovic 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
SHAHAR PE’ER returns the ball to Ana Ivanovic 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Shahar Pe’er was sent packing from Roland Garros in just 55 minutes on Wednesday, losing 6-2, 6-2 to Ana Ivanovic in the second round in Paris.
The 25-year-old Israeli, ranked No. 55 in the world, had won all three of her previous meetings against the former world No. 1, but the two hadn’t met since 2010 and Pe’er was thoroughly outplayed by Ivanovic (14) on Wednesday.
Pe’er was her own worse enemy, committing 23 unforced errors while hitting just six winners, claiming just an embarrassing 27 percent (13 of 47) of the points on her serve.
Pe’er has now gone 10 tournaments and more then three months without progressing past a second round, with the Israeli making just a single quarterfinal in what has been a dismal year to date.
Shahar, who has also not been beyond a Grand Slam second round since last year’s Australian Open, got Wednesday’s match off to a promising start, breaking in the first game.
However, Ivanovic would open a 5-1 lead after just 18 minutes and broke Pe’er again in the eighth game with a forehand winner to clinch the first set.
Pe’er finally held her serve for the first time in the match in the second game of the second set, but she was broken to love in the fourth game and ended the match with another unforced error, sending a backhand into the net to the delight of the triumphant Ivanovic.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic gave themselves more work than anticipated in moving into the third round on Wednesday.
Former champion Federer set a record with his 234th Grand-Slam match win but only after wasting two match points in a third-set tiebreak and having to play a fourth set to beat Romanian Adrian Ungur.
The third-seeded Federer eventually won 6-3, 6-2, 6- 7, 6-3 on a sunny Philippe Chatrier court to pass Jimmy Connors’s professional-era record, having equaled it in the first round.
“Instead of being aggressive I let him show me what he could do,” Federer said of the lost match points.
World No. 1 Djokovic, aiming to become the first man in 43 years to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time, rattled off the first seven games before beating Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 6-0, 6-4, 6-4.
Women’s world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka redeemed herself after narrowly avoiding a first-round defeat when she easily beat German qualifier Dinah Pfizenmaier 6-1, 6-1 in her second match, while eighth seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, a semifinalist last year, hit 14 double faults on the way to a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 defeat by Croatian world No. 50 Petra Martic.
A subdued Venus Williams was soundly beaten by third-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-3.
Former world No. 1 Williams, who has won seven grand slam events, is rebuilding her game and her life after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.
Reuters contributed to this report.