Ana Ivanovic Bio

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Ana Ivanovich, (Serbian: Ана Ивановић, Serbian pronunciation: [ˈana iˈvaːnɔvitɕ]  ( listen); born November 6, 1987, in Belgrade, Serbia, then Yugoslavia) is a former World No.1 Serbian tennis player. As of July 6, 2009, she is ranked World No. 11 by the Women's Tennis Association. She won the 2008 French Open and was the runner-up in singles at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open.

Ana Ivanovic: Personal life

Ivanovich's mother Dragana, who is a lawyer, attends all of her daughter's matches. Her father, Miroslav, a self-employed businessman, attends as many events as he possibly can. Ana has a younger brother, Miloš, with whom she loves to play basketball. She chooses not to have a permanent coach. Aside from her tennis career, Ivanovich also studies finance at a university in Belgrade and Spanish in her spare time. Her inspiration to begin playing was Monica Seles.

On September 8, 2007, Ivanovich became a UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia, alongside Aleksandar Đorđevich and Emir Kusturica. She takes a special interest in the fields of education and child protection. Ivanovich visited a primary school in Serbia during her inauguration and said: "I'm also looking forward to going into the classroom and meeting many kids."

Ivanovich confirmed in November 2008 that she was romantically involved with Spanish tennis player Fernando Verdasco; however, it was reported that the relationship ended in January 2009. Ivanovic is currently dating Australian golfer Adam Scott.

Ana Ivanovic: Equipment

Ivanovich endorsed Nike apparel and shoes at the beginning of her professional career, but at the beginning of 2006, she switched to rival Adidas. She started with the Wilson racquets, eventually using the nCode nBlade. Since the beginning of 2008, Ivanovich has been using Yonex racquets, presently equipped with the RQiS 1 Tour XL.

Ana Ivanovic: Playing Style

Ivanovic is an offensive baseliner who is notable for her aggressive play. Ivanovich's strength is her powerful forehand which has long been considered to be one of the best forehands in the game. Her backhand, although not as big of a weapon as her forehand, has improved over the years. Ivanovich's serve is a powerful weapon, but can sometimes be unreliable due to an occasional wayward ball toss. Ivanovich's movement and net play were once considered to be her weaknesses, however both her movement and net play has improved tremendously over the years. Ivanovich's best surface are clay courts where her height allows her to strike clean winners off of high bouncing balls, but she is capable of performing well on hard and grass courts as well. Her main weakness is considered to be her lack of confidence.

Ana Ivanovic: Career

Ivanovich picked up a racket at the age of five after watching Monica Seles, a fellow Yugoslavian, on television during the 1992 French Open. She started her career after memorizing the number of a local tennis clinic from an advertisement . During her training she encountered the NATO bombings in 1999, forcing her to train in the morning to avoid them. Later, she admitted that she trained in an abandoned swimming pool in the winter, as there were no other facilities. When she was 15, Ivanovich spent four hours in the locker room crying after a defeat-the first that her new manager had watched-she thought that Dan Holzmann was going to drop her because she felt that she was not good enough to become a professional tennis player. He has stayed as her manager to this day.

2004

Ivanovich reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament in 2004, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. In 2004, she went 26-0 on the ITF circuit, and won all five events that she entered, two of them as a qualifier. Her first professional breakthrough occurred in October 2004 when she took Venus Williams to two tie breaks before losing 7-6(11), 7-6(6) in the second round of the Z��rich Open in Z��rich, Switzerland, in which she held several set points in both sets. She followed that up with a quarterfinal showing in Luxembourg the next week.

2005

Ivanovich won her first career singles title, as a qualifier, in Canberra, Australia. Her ranking continued to rise after wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova, and Vera Zvonareva, all of whom were top 10 players. Ivanovich lost to Am�lie Mauresmo at the Australian Open, Doha, and Key Biscayne, Florida. However, Ivanovich defeated Mauresmo in the third round of the French Open. Ivanovich eventually reached the quarterfinals of that tournament, where she lost to Petrova. Later in the year, Ivanovich reached the semifinals of the Zurich Open and Generali Ladies Linz, losing in both tournaments to Patty Schnyder.

2006

Ivanovich started the year at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia with fellow Serbian Novak Djokovich, where the pair narrowly missed the final. To start off her WTA year she played at the Medibank International in Sydney where she once again defeated Am�lie Mauresmo, this time in straight sets, before falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.

Ivanovich at the 2006 US Open.

At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Ivanovich defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-3 before falling to Elena Dementieva in three sets. In the clay court season, she defeated Patty Schnyder in straight sets at the J & S Cup in Warsaw before losing to Anna Chakvetadze after a three-set battle. Retiring against Na Li at the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin while leading a set, she was unable to reproduce her record from the previous year, falling to Anastasia Myskina in straight sets in the third round of the French Open. She progressed to the fourth round at Wimbledon but lost to eventual champion Mauresmo in straight sets.

Ivanovich made her breakthrough in August when she defeated former World No. 1 Martina Hingis in the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal. This ultimately led to her winning the United States Open Series ahead of Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova. At the US Open she lost to Serena Williams. After some early round losses to Olga Poutchkova at the Wismilak International in Bali and Venus Williams at the FORTIS Championships in Luxembourg, Ivanovich took a few weeks off to tend to a recurring injury in her right shoulder. She made her return in Linz and made it to the quarterfinals of Generali Ladies, before losing to Maria Sharapova in two sets. Finishing her year at the Gaz de France Stars in Hasselt, Belgium, she lost to Dutch player Micha��lla Krajicek.

Ivanovich also played nine tournaments in doubles in 2006, teaming with Maria Kirilenko and Sania Mirza. Ivanovich and Kirilenko made two semifinals and a final; they ended the year at number 17 in the annual Race to the Championships. Ivanovich herself finished the year ranked World No. 14 and in the doubles, she finished at World No. 51.

2007

Ivanovich's first three tournaments of the year were in Australia. Starting with the Mondial Hardcourts in Gold Coast, she fell to Shahar Pe'er in the quarterfinals. At the Medibank International in Sydney, she again lost in the quarterfinals, this time to Nicole Vaidišov�. Seeded 13th at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Ivanovich defeated Polish player Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round but lost in the third round to Vera Zvonareva, 6-1, 6-2. Immediately after this tournament, she announced via her official website that she had terminated the services of her coach, David Taylor.

In Tokyo for the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open, Ivanovich defeated Jelena Jankovich and Maria Sharapova who retired from the match due to injury to reach her third career final, but then lost to Martina Hingis.

Ivanovich lost to Kim Clijsters in the quarterfinals of the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. She then played one Tier II and three Tier I events in the United States. At the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, she was defeated in the fourth round by Sybille Bammer. Yaroslava Shvedova then defeated Ivanovich in the second round of the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. Beginning her clay court season, Ivanovich played the Tier II Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida, where she defeated Jankovich in the quarterfinals before falling to Tatiana Golovin in the semifinals. The following week, she made her first appearance at the Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, losing to Zvonareva in the third round.

Ivanovich then returned to Europe to play two clay court tournaments in preparation for the French Open. In Berlin at the Qatar Telecom German Open, she won her first Tier I clay court title, defeating World No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. However, Ivanovich injured her ankle during the final, which forced her to withdraw from the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. The win in Berlin propelled her into the top ten of the WTA Rankings for the first time, at World No. 8.

Ivanovich had a six-match winning streak heading into the French Open and increased this streak to twelve by reaching the final. She won her first three matches with the loss of only nine games. In her second career quarterfinal at Roland Garros, Ivanovich defeated World No. 3 Kuznetsova 6-0, 3-6, 6-1. She then beat World No. 2 Sharapova in the semifinals 6-2, 6-1. In the final, Ivanovich attempted to win her first Grand Slam singles title and complete a sweep of the top three players in the world. Three-time winner Justine Henin, however, won the match in straight sets. Later on, Ivanovich admitted that the idea of being in the final of a Grand Slam tournament overwhelmed her.

With her clay court season over, Ivanovich played the Ordina Open on grass in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, losing in the quarterfinals to Daniela Hantuchov�. At Wimbledon, Ivanovich defeated World No. 9 Nadia Petrova in the fourth round and saved three match points to defeat Vaidišov� in the quarterfinals 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. In the semifinals, three-time former Wimbledon champion Venus Williams defeated Ivanovich in straight sets.

Warming up at the 2007 US Open

A persistent knee injury sustained at Wimbledon caused Ivanovich to withdraw from Serbian Fed Cup competition with Slovakia and two lead up events to the US Open. She returned to the tour at the East West Bank Classic in Carson, California, saving two match points in the semifinals before defeating Jankovich 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the final, Ivanovich defeated Petrova to win the fourth singles title of her career, which increased her ranking to a career high of World No. 4.

Ivanovich next attempted to defend her title at the Tier I Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada. However, her title defence lasted only 65 minutes as she lost to Chinese qualifier Yan Zi 6-3, 6-1.

In Ivanovich's first three matches at the US Open, she lost only 10 games. Venus Williams then eliminated her for the second consecutive time at a Grand Slam tournament, 6-4, 6-2.

Ivanovich then returned to Europe for three tournaments. At the Tier II Luxembourg Championships, Ivanovich qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships as she reached the semifinals. In the final, Ivanovich rallied from 6-3, 3-0 down to defeat Hantuchov� in two hours and 25 minutes. This was her fifth career title. At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Ivanovich lost to Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. Playing at what Ivanovich considers her home event, the Tier I Zurich Open, she lost to Golovin in the second round 6-3, 6-1.

To end the year, Ivanovich played the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain. Seeded fourth and assigned to the Red Group during the round robin phase, she defeated World No. 2 Kuznetsova in a three-set match and Hantuchov� in straight sets. Sharapova then defeated Ivanovich in the final match of the round robin 6-1, 6-2. Because she finished second in her group, Ivanovich played World No. 1 Henin in the semifinals, which the Belgian won 6-4, 6-4.

Ivanovich finished the year with a career-high ranking of World No. 4, 14 points behind Jankovich.

Ana Ivanovic - 2008

Ivanovich began the year at the Medibank International in Sydney, losing to Justine Henin in the semifinals in three sets. As the fourth seed at the Australian Open, Ivanovich defeated Venus Williams for the first time in her career in the quarterfinals before losing to Maria Sharapova in a straight sets in final. Her ranking rose to World No. 2 as a result of her performance at the tournament, the highest of her career at the time.

Ivanovich at the 2008 Australian Open

In Serbia's Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I D round robin tie against Poland in Budapest, Ivanovich defeated Urszula Radwańska in straight sets. In Serbia's second round robin tie against Romania, Ivanovich defeated Monica Niculescu and then teamed with Jelena Jankovich to win the deciding doubles rubber against the Romanian team 2-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(2). In the promotion playoff, Ivanovich beat Renee Reinhard of the Netherlands, as Serbia advanced to the World Group II playoffs in April.

Ivanovich was the top-seeded player at the Qatar Total Open in Doha but withdrew from the tournament after her second round match because of an ankle injury. The following week at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, Ivanovich lost in the quarterfinals to Elena Dementieva. In March, Ivanovich defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final of the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California but lost to Lindsay Davenport in the third round of the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open iin Key Biscayne, Florida the following week.

Ivanovich started her clay court season as defending champion at the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin. She lost to Dementieva for the fourth time in four career matches in the semifinals. At the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, top seeded Ivanovich lost in the second round to a qualifier. Ivanovich was the second-seeded player at the French Open. She defeated World No. 3 Jankovich in the semifinals in three sets, guaranteeing that Ivanovich would become the World No. 1, regardless of whether she won the final. Ivanovich then went on to defeat Dinara Safina in the final, winning her first Grand Slam singles title.

Venus Williams serving to Ivanovich in their semifinal match at the Zurich Open

At Wimbledon, Ivanovich was the top-seeded player and defeated French veteran player Nathalie Dechy in the second round 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 10-8. The match took 3 hours, 24 minutes to play, with Ivanovich saving two match points while trailing 5-4 in the second set and Dechy saving three match points in the third set before succumbing. Ivanovich then lost in the third round to unseeded wildcard Zheng Jie of China, who was ranked World No. 133, 6-1, 6-4.

The summer hardcourt season started with a third round loss at the Rogers Cup in Montreal to Tamira Paszek. Ivanovich, bothered by a sore thumb sustained during practice two weeks before Montreal, withdrew from the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles. This caused her to lose her World No. 1 ranking to Jankovich. The injury also caused her to withdraw from the Summer Olympics in Beijing, with Ivanovich describing the withdrawal as "one of the worst moments of her career". Ivanovich, having reclaimed her World No. 1 ranking on August 18, was the top-seeded player at the US Open. She lost in the second round to qualifier Julie Coin, which was the earliest loss by a top seeded player at the US Open since the 1973 tournament.

In her first match after the US Open, which was the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Ivanovich was defeated by Nadia Petrova of Russia in three sets, bringing her win-loss record since the French Open to 4-4. Ivanovich later told the press that she was "just happy to be back injury-free" and that she needed to "play more matches get back into rhythm".

Ivanovich beat World No. 18 Aliz� Cornet of France in the second round of the China Open in Beijing before losing to Zheng Jie in the quarterfinals in three sets. At the Tier I Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Ivanovich was upset by Slovak teenager Dominika Cibulkov� in the second round. In the last edition of the Zurich Open in Switzerland, Ivanovich won back-to-back matches for the first time since Wimbledon. However, in her sixth semifinal of the year, Ivanovich lost to Venus Williams. At the Generali Ladies Linz in Austria, Ivanovich reached her first WTA Tour final since the French Open and went on to defeat second-seeded Vera Zvonareva.

At the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Qatar, Ivanovich was the fourth seed. In her first round robin match, she was defeated by World No. 1 Jankovich 6-3, 6-4. Her next match was against Zvonareva, to whom she lost 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4. She withdrew from her final match against Kuznetsova because of a virus.

Ana Ivanovic - 2009

Ivanovich started the year by playing two tournaments in Australia. At the Brisbane International, Ivanovich lost to Am�lie Mauresmo 6-3, 6-2 in the third round. At the Australian Open, Ivanovich was seeded fifth and won her first two matches in straight sets before losing to Russian Alisa Kleybanova in the third round 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2.

Ivanovich took part in Serbia's Fed Cup win in the World Group II tie against Japan. She defeated Ai Sugiyama and Ayumi Morita to help Serbia to a 4-1 win. At the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, a Premier 5 event on the tour, she lost to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals 6-4, 6-4. Around this time, Ivanovich began working with coach Craig Kardon in February after parting with former coach Sven Groeneveld.

At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, where she was defending champion, Ivanovich defeated 12th-seeded Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Having advanced to the final she lost to Vera Zvonareva in a match plagued by windy conditions, 7-6(5), 6-2. In Miami, Ivanovich lost in the third round to �gnes Sz�vay. In April, Ivanovich took part in the Serbia's Fed Cup World Group Play-offs against Spain. She defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues to help Serbia gain promotion to the World Group with a 4-0 win.

Ivanovich during the 2009 French Open.

In Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, fifth seeded Ivanovich defeated Italian Francesca Schiavone before being defeated by the 10th seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the third round, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, throwing away a 4-0 lead in the third set. She withdrew from the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open because of a knee injury . At the 2009 French Open, Ivanovich went crashing out to Victoria Azarenka in the 4th round 6-2, 6-3. This early loss caused Ivanovich to fall out of the top ten for the first time since first cracking it in May 2007, sitting at World No. 13. After this, Ivanovich announced that she had ceased working with Craig Kardon and will be participating in the adidas Player Development Program where she will be coached by Sven Groeneveld, Darren Cahill, Mats Merkel and Gil Reyes.

Ivanovich lost in the first round of the AEGON International to the seventh seed Nadia Petrova in three sets 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 despite being 4-1 and a double break up in the final set. Ivanovich partnered Sabine Lisicki in doubles but the pairing was defeated in the first round by Cara Black and Liezel Huber, 6-1, 6-2.

At Wimbledon, Ivanovich was seeded 13th. She opened the tournament against Lucie Hradeck� and had to save two match before eventually winning 5-7, 6-2, 8-6. This became the third year in a row where Ivanovich had to save match points at Wimbledon. She followed up this match with wins over Sara Errani and 18th seeded Samantha Stosur, only her second win over a top 15 opponent this season. She retired from her fourth round match with Venus Williams while trailing 6-1, 0-1, due to a micro-tear in her thigh.

In preparation for the U.S. Open, Ivanovich took part in three tournaments. In the LA Women's Tennis Championships in Los Angeles, Ivanovich reached the third round, where she fell to Samantha Stosur, 6-3, 6-2. Her next tournament was the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati where she was upset in the second round by Melinda Czink, 7-6(6), 7-5, despite serving for the first set at 5-4 and holding a 3-0 advantage in the second. Ivanovich then lost to Lucie Safarova 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, at the Rogers Cup in Toronto despite serving for the match in the second set at 5-4.

At the U.S. Open, Ivanovich lost in the first round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(7), despite holding a 3-1 lead in the second set and having match point on her serve in the third set tiebreak.

Ivanovich's win-loss record for the year stands at 24-13, her worst since she turned pro. She has also failed to defeat a top 10 player since October the previous year, with her win-loss record against top 20 players at 2-7. Ivanovich has only reached three quarter-finals (Brisbane, Dubai, Indian Wells), one semi-final and final (Indian Wells) and has only won back-to-back matches six times (Brisbane, Australian Open, Dubai, Indian Wells, French Open, Wimbledon), only two coming in non grand slam events.

Ana Ivanovic: Major finals

Ana Ivanovic - Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (1-2)

Ana Ivanovic: Career finals

Ana Ivanovic - Singles: 12 (8-4)

Wins (8)

Runner-ups (4)

Ana Ivanovic - Doubles: 1 (0-1)

Runner-up (1)

Ana Ivanovic: ITF Circuit titles (5)

Since Ivanovich's professional debut in August 2003 she won 5 ITF Titles.

Ana Ivanovic: Singles performance timeline

To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, which ended April 5, 2009.

• Win/loss record does not include walkovers.
• The WTA website erroneously omits Ivanovich's three Fed Cup singles wins (all on carpet) during January-February 2008. This is why this table shows three more wins in 2008, on carpet, and during her career than the WTA website.

Ana Ivanovic: WTA Tour career earnings

Ana Ivanovic: See also

• Tennis performance timeline comparison (women)
• Serbia Fed Cup team
• List of Grand Slam Women's Singles champions

Ana Ivanovic: Head-to-head record against other players

Ivanovic's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked World No. 10 or higher is as follows:

Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.