Trying hard to redeem her position in WTA, former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia kept her impressive winning streak alive at the Generali Ladies Linz on Thursday after registering an easy 6-4 6-3 victory over her good friend and fellow former Top 10 player Andrea Petkovic.

Ivanovic was pushed to a certain extent by Petkovic, but the Serbian played well at the crucial junctures to earn this well deserved victory in the end. "It's always tough to play a friend," Ivanovic said of Petkovic. "She's a really great girl and I'm happy to see her back on the tour. I know she'll get back to the top - she's such a hard worker and really deserves to be up there."

The Serbian has been enjoying an 11-match winning streak at the Generali Ladies Linz, scoring 4-0 to win the title in 2008, 5-0 to claim the title again in 2010, and 2-0 so far this year. The Serb has an impressive 16-2 win-loss record at this International-level tournament.

"It always feels good to come back to the place you've had success before," Ivanovic said. "It's a mix of things. I really enjoy this surface and the atmosphere is relaxed - and at this time of the year the tennis season is coming to an end, so you have more fun on the court, and maybe you don't practice as much!"

On the other hand, Petkovic said, "I'm playing in Luxembourg next week, and then I will go to the new tournament in New Delhi, which I'm really excited about because I've never been to India before," Petkovic said. "I'm looking forward to collecting some more matches this year and seeing if I can keep improving my game and my results.  It's been a rough comeback, but I'm just happy I'm back on the court and enjoying almost every minute - I'm losing more than I should, but that's normal, and I'm just trying to find my match rhythm again. Every match is still special."

On the other hand, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka earned a straight sets 6-1 6-1 victory over Simona Halep to move further in this tournament. "I felt I played much better than yesterday, and it's important for me to progress from one day to another," Azarenka said. "I'm not really thinking about statistics or how many matches I'm winning right now, I'm just trying to keep going."