Ana Ivanovic Ends Two Year Title Drought

Ana Ivanovic ended her two year title drought as she saw off Patty Schnyder to lift the Generali Ladies Open in Linz.

The former world number one has not dropped a set on her way to the title and this was her first final since reaching the final two at Indian Wells back in 2009.

She last lifted a trophy at the Linz event two years ago, the same year that she won her first Grand Slam at the French Open and spent twelve weeks as the world number one.

But since the end of 2008 Ivanovic has seen her form slide as she suffered with her confidence and she is currently down at the world number twenty six, three places up after her win.

The match did not start well for Schnyder as two double faults contributed to her dropping her serve in the opening game of the match to immediately put her on the back foot.

And while Ivanovic did surrender her serve her serve in the next game a second break saw the Serb move ahead 3-1. That one game was all Schnyder was allowed to get on the board as Ivanovic closed out the opener.

And the former world number one broke for the third time to lead 1-0 and it wasn't long before that became 3-0 as the double faults continued to plague Schnyder's game.

A third break in the second set saw Ivanovic move 5-0 ahead and while Schnyder did manage to finally hold and get one of the breaks back it was too little too late.

After just forty five minutes on court Ivanovic closed out the match 6-1 6-2 for her first win of 2010.

Speaking to the WTA after the match Ivanovic said: "Patty's always a tough opponent and I didn't expect this kind of scoreline. I had confidence from my last few matches and that helped me stay aggressive today.

"I took a lot of risks and stepped in a lot. I believed in my shots and made them count, and I'm very pleased with that."

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw