German Andrea Petkovic reaches the second round at Miami

German Andrea Petkovic reaches the second round at Miami

German wildcard entrant, Andrea Petkovic, registered cracking straight sets 6-3, 6-1 victory against the 21-year-old Serb, Bojana Jovanovski, in the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami. She dispatched the 41^st raked competitor in just 57 minutes and stamped her authority with the victory.

The troubled German who ended the 2011 season amongst the Top-10 players incurred an ankle injury in the following season and couldn’t play any tournament properly; slipped out of the Top-200 players by the end of the season before playing well in The Royal Indian Open at Pune where she reached the semi-final before losing out to Elina Svitolina. She also had an impressive tour of Luxembourg where she reached the semi-final of the BGL Luxembourg Open but lost to the in-form reigning world number one, Serena Williams, in three sets.

Many people believed that the former world number nine will not be able to play. She had to retire from the Hopman Cup for the ankle injury reasons and lost in the final qualifying round of the BNP Paribas at Indian Wells.

However, the 162^nd ranked German has altered the approach to the game and stated in an interview, “I’ve changed. My coach actually laughs at me when I tell him I’m a changed person, but it’s true. I don’t get frustrated on the court anymore. I’m just happy to be back. I’m really enjoying every moment of it. I don’t know how long it’ll hold up like this. In my other comebacks I was really so intense and expecting myself to do great and be at the same level as before, but this time I came back with no expectations. A lot of people have approached me and told me they didn’t think I would come back again but I felt deep inside this chapter isn’t over.”

It will be interesting to witness how far the 25-year-old German can go before the ankle injury ends her career. She is still playing through pain and the next opponent for her is the number one Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli, who is seeded 10^th in the tournament. It will be a tough battle for the struggling German but the first result shows that she has still got the class to beat any opponent on her day.

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Posted by Fahad Zafar on Mar 21 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.