Ivanovic leads Serbian assault

The three main Serb players have not yet penetrated the Wimbledon or London consciousness in the dramatic way they did at Roland Garros just over two weeks ago. Give them time.

Yesterday Ana Ivanovic, the youngest of the trio that includes Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic, earned her first Wimbledon win of 2007 with the hope of making it through to at least the quarter-final stages, where she is then scheduled to meet with last year's champion, Amelie Mauresmo.

Ivanovic (19) will still look back on her final against Justin Henin at the French Open as a tool of motivation rather than a final in which her confidence and game crashed down around her, when she came to realise the magnitude of what she was doing.

The teenager's life has changed dramatically since Roland Garros and yesterday, after beating Hungarian Melinda Czink 6-0, 7-6, Ivanovic spoke of the reaction in Belgrade when the French Open concluded.

"We arrived in Belgrade in the afternoon and then they waited for us at the airport, Djokovic, Jankovic and me," she said.

"They took us to the parliament house in the centre of the city. We were on the terrace and in the square and there were maybe 10,000, 15,000 people to welcome us.

"It was an unbelievable feeling. This was one of the first times they organised it for individual athletes. It was a thrilling moment."

The fact that the three players, all now ranked in the world's top 10, learned their tennis on Olympic-sized swimming pools covered with carpet, where Ivanovic had already stated the obvious problem of moving left and right for balls out wide.

That relative poverty and lack of financial support has been brought further into focus these days as the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the wealthiest tennis association in the world.

The All England club, who run Wimbledon, makes over £30 million each year, which is then pumped back into British tennis.

Asked if that same place in Belgrade is a place she would go for a swim, Ivanovic pointed out that it's still being used, and no doubt marketed now as the surface that launched the careers of the top three Serb players in the world.

"Actually, the kids are still practising there," said the sixth seed.

"It still exists. So I go back there sometimes because it is very close to my house. Yeah, maybe one day I'll hit there again."

Unlikely. Like Jankovic, who earned her place in the third round yesterday, Ivanovic has her eye on the show courts of the world.

"A Grand Slam final was pretty amazing," she said.

"It's definitely something I will never forget. Next match I play, if I get that nervous, I will just go back to the experience and say what can be more nervous than a Grand Slam final."

Seeded three Jankovic, having swept aside the challenge of Britain's Anne Keothavong in the first round in under an hour, met the challenge of Jarmila Gajdosova, with even greater vigour.

As if the 22-year-old knew that these are days when weather can determine the outcomes of matches, she metaphorically drove a coach-and-four through the 20-year-old.

The first set lasted 21 minutes, Jankovic conceding just one game and the second took six minutes longer, again the 22-year-old allowing Gajdosova just one game.

Jankovic reached the fourth round here last year seeded 26. Coming back a year later, having moved up 23 places, indicates the sort of form she has been in the last 12 months.

Although not the top seed, she leads the Sony Ericsson race, a league of points that runs through the season reflecting the consistent form of players.

She is now the highest ranked player to have ever represented Serbia and out of the 17 events she has played in 2007, has reached the semi-final or better in 11 of them.

Also lucky to have had early games were Justin Henin, who had an early-in-the-day and an early-back-to-the-locker-room win over Russia's Vera Dushevina. The 6-0, 6-4 victory lasted an hour.

The French Open champion played the match with black strapping on her lower right leg which she said was to combat tendinitis.

"I've started to get a little bit of tendinitis in my right foot and it's been bothering me in the last few days," top seed Henin said.

"In the first set I played superbly. My first serve was flowing," said Henin, who extended her winning streak to 13 matches.

"In the second set there was some games where I lost a bit of concentration which is typical for me," added the 24-year-old, who has twice been a finalist at Wimbledon and lost to Mauresmo last year.

She faces another Russian, Elena Vesnina, in the third round.

Martina Hingis opted to make her second match of the tournament more straightforward than her wobbly first and was her tidy, ruthless, efficient, self against Aiko Nakamura.

The 6-1, 6-2 win offering her some solace after nearly departing to Naomi Cavaday in the first round.

Serena Williams ebbed and flowed in her game against Australia's Alicia Molik.

Her sixth game of the match went forehand into the net, back hand too long, ace and scramble to hold serve.

Each shot was a lottery but as ever she found the other gear when she needed it.

In the first round she can get away with it but polishing is required.

"When I'm playing well it's hard for anyone to beat me. That's just a fact," she said after the 7-6, 6-3 win.

No one argued.