Tennis: Ivanovic gets her revenge over Swede

INDIAN WELLS, California: Former French Open champ Ana Ivanovic avenged a loss last year at Roland Garros by routing Johanna Larsson in straight sets at the ATP/WTA Indian Wells tournament on Saturday.

The 24-year-old Serb, who won the Indian Wells title in 2008, improved to 2-1 lifetime against the Swede, needing just 61 minutes to dispatch Larsson in their second-round match 6-1, 6-2.

It marked the third career meeting between the two, with former world No.1 Ivanovic having won two years ago in Luxembourg and Larsson winning last year on clay at the French Open.

Ivanovic broke Larsson's serve five times, including three times in the opening set. She had three aces and four double faults and posted a 67 percent success rate on first-serve points in the centre-court match.

Four years ago, Ivanovic won at Indian Wells then went on to capture the French Open title.

Ivanovic advanced to the third round, where she'll face either Peng Shuai or Ksenia Pervak.

In other early matches Saturday, Sweden's No. 1 Sofia Arvidsson cruised past Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-3, Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain surprised 11th seeded Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-4 and Dominika Cibulkova advanced when Magdalena Rybarikova pulled out of their match in the first set with a stomach illness.

On the men's side, American 11th seed John Isner defeated Portugal's Frederico Gil 7-5, 6-3 and world No. 91 Matthew Ebden of Australia rallied to beat France's Julien Benneteau 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. (AFP)