Cincinnati will miss Ana

Ana Ivanovic had an amazing run in Cincy this week. She drew Victoria Azarenka as her first round opponent. Considering Vika won Stanford one week ago, not so many people expected Ana to win the match despite rooting for her. I think that I don't speak for myself when I say that I would have been also happy if Ana didn't win but played high quality tennis. At the end she gave us much more than that, she gave us hope for a brighter future. She defeated Vika after three tough sets.

She continued with her winning strike when she defeated Yaroslava, Vesnina and Akgul to gain a spot in the semifinals! We all exploded with joy, our Ana was enjoying herself on court and winning matches! For people like me, who weren't lucky enough to be at the tournament, it was a great deal being able to see her on livestream. In her previous tournaments she didn't reach weekends (when most of the livestreams start).

Today I was prepared to see a well contested semifinal against Kim, I had my hopes up for Ana. I really thought she was going to make it to the finals, but you never know with tennis.

The match started at 1pm central time, and it finished at 1.17 pm. Luck wasn't with Ana today, nor with all of her fans. When Kim was serving 2-1 at deuce, Ana injured her left foot while playing a forehand. I first thought it wasn't anything major, but when she began to cry I knew it was over. All those flashbacks of Wimbledon last year against Venus Williams came to me -so sad. She received on-court medical treatment and got back to her feet. Kim served and Ana made a mindblowing forehand winner. But it didn't last long as she began to cry again and finally approached the chair umpire who informed us that it was over. Nobody was expecting this. Nobody.

All we can do is give her a standing ovation for all the hard work and improvement she has done this week. She didn't deserve this at all... It's so sad. We can only pray and hope that is nothing serious and that she will be back for the USOpen.

We love you Anci and we are so proud of you!

Update: Ana suffered strained ankle ligaments in her left foot.

 Ana: "It's been a great week for me. I still played some really great tennis" --> Yeah you did Anci! You are back in the top 40 =)