Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic into U.S. Open third round

Ana Ivanovic, who was ranked No. 1 in the world four years ago, the year she won her only Grand Slam-level tournament (the French Open), moved into the third round of the U.S. Open on Thursday.

Ivanovic, seeded 12th, had a thoroughly dominating 6-2, 6-2 win over Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson. Ivanovic spent only 64 minutes on the court and hit 35 forehand winners in the match but no backhand winners, a statistic future opponents might take note of.

Jelena Jankovic, like Ivanovic from Serbia, and like Ivanovic also a formerly No. 1-ranked player, also won her second-round match Thursday. Jankovic, seeded 30th, beat Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain 6-4, 6-2. While the final score makes Jankovic’s win seem easy, she spent 1 hour, 45 minutes on the court.

Ivanovic had come to the U.S. Open uncertain about a foot injury that caused her to withdraw from most of the summer hardcourt preparatory events, said she played without pain Thursday, a good sign.

“It was a little tear in my tendon,” Ivanovic said.

Ivanovic is in a quarter of the draw where two of the other highly seeded players, Caroline Wozniacki and Francesca Schiavone, have already been eliminated. But Ivanovic isn’t going to look ahead, she said. “It’s important to take things one step at a time,” she said. “Each match can be dangerous if you focus on the match after that. I know I have game to get far. I’ve done that in the past yet it’s been a long time since I have reached the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam. So that would be my next step.”

Ivanovic’s best result this season was on hard courts. She made it to the semifinals of the Indian Wells tournament last spring and beat two players ranked in the top 10 (Caroline Wozniacki and Marion Bartoli) in that event.

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