That’s right folks. It really did.

I’ll admit, I’ve been one in the past to try way too hard to look for the positives in Ana games when it’s been clear things weren’t going well. But this is the best Ana has played in a very, very long time. A 6-4 6-4 victory over a woozy Vika is the first win for her over a top 10 opponent in 18 months.

The joys of a coach. Instead of beating herself up and physically flailing after a bad point, she takes it in stride, and seems to keep herself mentally a float. Instead of being a total headcase and miss tossing balls on the serve left right and centre, she goes for it, and is thinking about what she’s doing and using the serve as a weapon again. Heinz, you rule.

Gotta keep it real, however. Vika took a medical timeout at 4-all in the first set, and I expected her to drop the set and retire. Instead she spent most of the second set up a break, while Ana seemed apparently blind to the fact that her opponent was barely upright. Props to Vika for hanging in there, as long as she’s feeling ok. But hey, huge win. Elena is going to be one hell of a challenge.

This one’s back too. The first set, it seemed Serena was either rusty, or only interested in making a trip straight back the beach. But then she kicked it into second gear, and well, that was the match.

Flavs continues to struggle, and to me, looks like a lost soul on court. Mentally, she seems distracted and only half there and instead of really going for balls and pushing opponents around like she did so well last year… well, she’s eating baked goods at the hands of Lucie.

And yes, Dinara lost. She’s still getting the timing back, but if you’re a Dinara fan, you’ve gotta be pretty impressed with what you’ve seen so far, considering how long she’s been out. Pretty straight forward with the other matches on the day.