Ivanovic, seeded and ranked 1st, had a tough time on court as she played her debut match against the Czech, losing the second set shamefully, but eventually pulling off the win after an exhausting match which took 1 hour and 59 minutes to finish, 63 46 63.
"It wasn't the best match I've played," Ivanovic said. "She played a match before this week and for me it was the first match since Wimbledon. So in the beginning I obviously struggled to find my rhythm a little bit. But I'm happy I won. You have to win even if you don't play your best. That was the case for me today."
Other seeds advancing in the day session were No.6 seed Anna Chakvetadze, a 62 75 winner over Jill Craybas; No.7 seed Dinara Safina, who improved to 23-3 since the European clay court season with a 62 64 win over Anastasia Rodionova; No.9 seed Patty Schnyder, a 61 75 winner over Monica Niculescu; No.11 seed Victoria Azarenka, a 62 62 winner over Sybille Bammer; and No.12 seed Nadia Petrova, who beat Tamarine Tanasugarn, 63 62. No.10 seed Marion Bartoli moved into the third round when her opponent, Alisa Kleybanova, withdrew prior to their match due to a low back injury.
Two seeds, Maria Kirilenko and Flavia Pennetta, weren't as lucky as Ivanovic. Kirilenko, seeded 13th, lost in a tight three-setter to Canadian Stephanie Dubois, 62 26 76(4), knowing that the crowd will go against her; while No. 15 seed Flavia Pennetta was ousted by 15-year-old rising star Michelle Larcher de Brito, 63 06 63.
"At the end I was still believing I could do it; I managed well on the important points," said Dubois, who showed some strong nerves to come back as Kirilenko served for the match at 5-4 in the third set. "I'm really happy right now I pulled it through. I didn't want to lose this match. Obviously, Maria played a good match. She's a top player. She has won two titles this year. Every point was tough."
Winners between unseeded matches were Ai Sugiyama, who won over Shahar Peer 62 62, and Tamira Paszek was victorious over Melinda Czink, 64 75.
One of the last matches was between Maria Sharapova and Marta Domachowska, which lasted five miuntes short of three hours. Sharapova was obviously not in her best form, losing the second set, but she came back eventually and won the match in a three-setter, 75 57
62. Maria was struggling in the match with her shoulder, serving 15 double faults, and at the end of the match, she withdrawn from the tournament because of her shoulder."Coming into this tournament I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to compete," Sharapova said. "In the last few weeks I've been trying to find a solution to the aggravation I did to the shoulder back at Indian Wells in one of my matches. I haven't found the solution yet. I just spoke to a couple of doctors and they advised me to try to find the cause of the problem, what's causing my bursitis, because they think there's something else behind it rather than just that."
No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic was the last to take the court, against home player Aleksandra Wozniak. The match was easily finished in two sets, with Jankovic breaking the Canandian's dreams of winning in her home country, 60 64.
"The first match is always tough; playing against a Canadian, knowing that the crowd will be against me, knowing all the circumstances, it's not so easy," Jankovic said. "But I was able to stay focused and was able to get through the match. I'm happy with that and looking forward to my next match."
"Obviously she played a great match today," Wozniak said. "She didn't make any mistakes. She played so cleanly in the first set and it went by so fast. In the second set I did better, stepping into the short balls and being more aggressive; but I think I made some errors and didn't take my opportunities. I'll just have to go forward from here and look to the future."
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