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Ivanovic lone seeded player to win at Stanford

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STANFORD, Calif. (AP) Ana Ivanovic has a new coach and a better outlook.

The fifth-seeded Ivanovic won her first-round match in the Bank of the West Classic, defeating Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (2), 6-1 on Tuesday.

The former world No. 1 lost to Lisicki in three sets in their previous meeting at Wimbledon.

''My mentality has changed,'' Ivanovic said. ''Sometimes just a few points make a difference and it helps to be positive in a tight situation. I did that today in the tiebreak.''

She also hired Dejan Petrovic and was playing her first tournament with him.

''It was a lot of things on and off the court,'' Ivanovic said of her split with Nemanja Kontic following the loss to Lisicki at Wimbledon. ''He helped me a lot and sometimes these decisions are very hard.''

Ivanovic has won three tournament titles on the WTA Tour this season after failing to win a tournament in 2013. She owns 14 career titles.

''I don't think like that,'' she said. ''When I was being introduced, I heard that I won three titles and I thought `I did?' I knew I had played a lot of matches, so maybe I should not have been surprised.''

Ivanovic fell behind in the first set and rallied to win it in a tiebreaker.

''It was a tough first match for both of us,'' Ivanovic said. ''She was playing very well. In the tiebreak I thought I had to be aggressive, so I came to the net. I felt confident in doing that.''

The Serbian next faces qualifier Carol Zhao, a sophomore at Stanford who was leading Yanina Wickmayer, 6-2, 1-0, when the Belgian retired because of a viral infection.

In other matches, Garbine Muguruza downed defending tournament champion and sixth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, and Monica Puig beat seventh-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-3, 7-5.

''When I play someone higher in the rankings I don't feel pressure,'' said the 28th-ranked Muguruza. ''I just out and play. This is a really fast court and that's good for my game. The court helps me sometimes.''

She improved to 2-0 against the 12th-ranked Cibulkova.