Her bid would unfurl in just the third round that year. Her conqueror, Jie Zheng, would go on to become the first Chinese player and the first wild-card to reach a Grand Slam semi-final.
On Thursday, the Serb finally had her chance to exact revenge, swinging with authority on her way to a 6-4, 6-0 triumph in just over an hour. Coming off her first grasscourt title in Birmingham, Ivanovic was a different player to the 20-year-old who crumbled against Zheng bearing the weight of expectations in 2008. “It's been so long ago I don't even remember. Definitely it's been a slow, slow climb back,” Ivanovic said of her return to form in 2014. “I felt like I been playing a lot of matches and a lot of good victories this year I had, and rankings didn't really resemble that, which was little bit hard to take because you put so much hard work and then yet you're dropping in the ranking list.” Zheng, languishing at No.66 in the rankings from a career-high of No.15 five years ago, was bringing her own run of form on the green turf to Wimbledon having reached the final in ’s-Hertogenbosch last week. She started the stronger of the two; her early break of serve setting off a succession of breaks between two of the players with the heaviest return of serves in the women’s game. With Ivanovic serving for the set at 5-3, China’s No.4-ranked player struck two heavy forehand winners to break for 4-5. If holding serve wasn't proving difficult enough, Zheng wasn’t helping her cause.
She opened with a double fault, before Ivanovic turned a brilliant defensive point around to thump a forehand pass ricocheting off her opponent’s racket. She would need three set points to get it done but a second double fault from Zheng handed it to her 6-4.
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