Ivanovic: Lucky escape

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Ana Ivanovic survived an almighty scare against Nathalie Dechy as she advanced to the third round at Wimbledon.

The French Open champion and top seed needed to save two match points before wrapping up a 6-7 7-6 10-8 victory on Court One.

The Serbian found herself under enormous pressure in the 10th game of the second set, but she saved one match point with a forehand winner before fending off a second with a fortunate net cord.

Dechy continued to put up a spirited fight in the deciding set, but Ivanovic edged it with a break of serve in the 18th game after almost three and a half hours on court.

World number one Ivanovic lost the first set despite romping into a 3-0 lead in just six minutes.

Fightback

However, she twice lost her advantage as unseeded Frenchwoman Dechy clawed her way back into the contest and forced the set into a tie-break.

A double-fault from Ivanovic gave Dechy a 4-0 lead and she went on to win the breaker 7-2 and take a shock lead.

Ivanovic enjoyed an extraordinary stroke of fortune in the second set when she faced the second of two match points on her serve with Dechy 5-4 in front.

The top seed struck a forehand volley which hit the net and trickled over to bring the score back to deuce, before a plainly embarrassed Ivanovic eventually served out for 5-5.

Ivanovic regrouped after her stroke of luck to take the set into another tie-break. This time the favourite was always in control and served out strongly to win it 7-3 and level the match.

Break chances

Ivanovic and Dechy continued to trade fierce baseline rallies into the decisive set in which an amazing 10 of the first 12 games of the set provided a break point chance.

Despite breaking twice to go ahead 4-2 and 5-3, Ivanovic was repeatedly pegged back by the world number 97, who went on to save two match points for the Serb on Dechy's serve at 5-4.

Finally, after three hours and 24 minutes of extraordinary action, Ivanovic fashioned further match point opportunities and slapped a forehand down the line to claim victory.

Next up for Ivanovic is a meeting with China's Zheng Jie, who earlier beat Britain's Elena Baltacha in straight sets.

Ivanovic said of her net cord escape on match point: "Someone upstairs made the ball roll over. I felt like time stopped for a moment because the ball was in the air for a couple of seconds. I thought the match would be over. After that point, I felt like it was a new match for me."

Ivanovic celebrated her victory by flitting across to kiss the top of the net at the conclusion of a contest which fell just 21 minutes short of the all-time record for the length of a women's singles match at the championships.

She added: "I went over to kiss the net because I felt so lucky. If it wasn't for that net, I'd be booking my flight home. I felt I had nothing to lose because I felt like I had lost the match already, so I could only win.

"I think I used up a lot of luck today. I kind of felt bad for the net call. But that's life and that's tennis. I think today what helped me was fighting spirit. To get through as a learning experience made me feel good."