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~Ana's articles~

544K views 5K replies 176 participants last post by  Triggervic 
#1 ·
Well basically as the title says, this is the thread to post all of the articles u find on Ana... Seeing there have been a lot lately I think this thread is starting to be needed ;)
I'll kick us off with an article from almost a week ago, it comes with a GREAT pic too which I'll put in the pic threads :D Enjoy! :bounce:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,20991840-10389,00.html
Handling wild ride
Paul Malone
December 31, 2006 12:00am

MARTINA Hingis says there are many players as good as tennis pin-up Ana Ivanovic, but who don't have the public profile of the emerging Serbian teenager.

Ivanovic was so tennis crazy as an 11-year-old that she went out to practice after NATO bombs had stopped falling on her home city of Belgrade.

She is unflappable and does not shy from the attention which follows her tennis success and her dark good looks.

Ivanovic, seeded third in a field headed by world No.7 Hingis for the Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourt Titles, which start today at Royal Pines resort, improved her ranking 80 places this year to No.14.

The 19-year-old's best tournament was a maiden WTA Tour tier-one title in which she beat Hingis in straight sets in the final in Montreal, a result that led Ivanovic to say she would have a psychological advantage over Hingis next time the two Switzerland-based players met.

Of Ivanovic, Hingis said: "There are a lot of players equally as good, but not as talked about. But she has potential. She had a good season and she's a talented up-and-coming player. If I said I was scared of anybody, I'd be false."

Ivanovic, who happily helped promote the Gold Coast tournament and herself on Friday with a press photo call at a local theme park, said the Montreal win could give her a psychological advantage at their next meeting, which may come on the Gold Coast.

Ivanovic's rise to tennis prominence and her lucrative appearances in advertising campaigns in Europe for the WTA Tour's sponsor and the sporting clothing multinational she endorses, is a wonderful success story.

When the Western military alliance NATO bombed Belgrade in 1999, Ivanovic and her coach curtailed one practice session and started to hit in the mornings, when the locals found the raids were less likely.

"It was scary, but I got used to it," Ivanovic, who has relatives in Melbourne, said.

"My parents tried to be protective, but you could see on the news what was happening.

"We would start coming to practice the next morning and talk about the bombs the night before. It was a difficult time."

Ivanovic's coach David Taylor, the Australian Fed Cup captain, said he had confidence in her continuing ability to concentrate on essential tennis matters and not be distracted by the other opportunities and requests.

"Sure, she's a pretty girl. But what motivates her is tennis and in no way has she made a decision which makes tennis come second to her other interests," Taylor said.

"If it ever did, I'd be worried. I can't ever see it happening."

Ivanovic, who served notice of her improvement in Sydney last January when she beat Amelie Mauresmo, the subsequent Australian Open champion, said she enjoyed the variety offered by the glamour photo shoots she has done for sponsors.

"It's a nice way to get away from tennis and I enjoy getting my make-up and hair done," she said.

"I spend a lot of time in a tracksuit or tennis clothes. The sponsorships are coming from my results and how you look doesn't help you win points.

"I got some confidence that I can actually beat top players and compete for a big title."

Ivanovic is on her fifth trip to Australia, a country she had always wanted to visit as a child.

"The first time I came here I fell in love with the country," she said. "It's always been a pleasure coming back here. I enjoy the sea and the beaches."
 
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#3 ·
I would imagine u can if u give the link to it too but no, I just know when my threads aren't wanted :sobbing: :p j/k ;)
 
#5 ·
Fine I will post an article next week :ras:
 
#7 ·
Shut up :ras:

Note to Josh: Don't piss your gf off :nerner: :hug:
 
#9 ·
The take off.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article1977572.ece

Serb and volley
June 24, 2007
Barry Flatman, tennis correspondent

One is blonde, the other is raven-haired. Both are photogenic and happy to exploit the fact. One takes her time over every serve, repeatedly going through the same meticulous routine, the other bounces the ball once before crashing it into play. One seldom returns to the country of her birth and has become consumed with life in America. The other cares passionately about her homeland and sees herself as an ambassador. One maintains a game-face that at best could be described as stern and, on more arduous points, becomes distinctly tortured. Barely controlled glee best personifies the expression the other wears when things are going well; when they are not, she resembles a little girl lost.

This is not just modern women’s tennis but big time business. Image rights abound, glamour is paramount, prospective endorsements stockpiled. This is the sort of rivalry that convinces the powerbrokers of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour that the sport’s appeal is assured well into the next decade. A year ago, Maria Sharapova was the best-known face in women’s sport and, competitively, a class above Ana Ivanovic, who was on the periphery of the big time – promising, attractive and talented but some way short of the game’s top level. All that changed in the space of two sets in the French Open semi-final when the teenage Serb triumphed 6-2 6-1 over the California-based Russian.

Minutes later, a man of obvious affluence was celebrating on the players’ terrace at Roland Garros. “This is the one we have been waiting for, this is the one we have been telling you about,” he insisted. “What an important victory for the future of women’s tennis. Nike’s princess was completely outplayed by the girl in adidas and now Ana will become just as big a star.”

This wasn’t just about winning a tennis match but striking a blow in what used to be called the “sneaker-wars”. Dan Holzman, the Swiss businessman who is the co-owner of a $450m company specialising in vitamin products, first spotted Ivanovic’s potential, both in tennis talent and marketability, when she was just 13. In the years that followed, he invested in her development, paying her expenses and ensuring she got the best in terms of coaching and training.

“I saw she was a great talent, but 99% of my reasoning was that Ana is a humble, modest, well-educated girl with caring parents,” explained Holzman, who now introduces himself as Ivanovic’s manager. “She had the talent to succeed but not the opportunity so I decided to help. Nearly six years on, she is still the same delightful person but now the world is taking notice. And she is the perfect counterpoint to Maria Sharapova.”

Fast-forward a week to Her-togenbosch in Holland and the weather is miserable. Rainy Mondays put a damper on most moods, but fail to darken the most engaging smile in tennis.

Sufficient time had passed to digest the memory of a case of stage fright against Justine Henin, with the tennis world looking on during the French Open final. In the interim, 50,000 compatriots in her home city of Belgrade lauded Ivanovic as a heroine alongside compatriots Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic, who both reached the semi-finals.

Wimbledon, and the chance to underline her growing reputation, is a week away and Ivanovic exudes the sort of excitement that suggests she can hardly wait. She is animated, open and affable. Perhaps it has something to do with those childhood tennis sessions in a drained indoor swimming pool when Nato bombs weren’t falling, but she is revelling in the attention afforded to her.

“People tell me I’m a star now but I find that difficult to believe,” she says. “What I have achieved makes no reason to change my personality and how I view other people.” And therein lies a major part of Ivanovic’s mission. She is determined to improve the perception of a country that was once again tainted by the hostile and allegedly racist behaviour of Serbia’s under-21 footballers and their supporters when they played England in Nijmegen.

Ivanovic has bad memories of her earliest days on the circuit. “Everyone seemed to think Serbians were bad people and I never felt I was welcome,” she remembered. “It was hard for us. At every airport, immigration and passport control always seemed to take half an hour longer for us than the other players. We had to explain what we were doing going into whatever country. There was so much trouble over visas. I was very young, but quickly realised people did not have a good opinion of us.

“I didn’t understand. Now I know but it is wrong to judge somebody because of where they come from. When I go home I see a change for the better in our country and Novak, Jelena and I hope our results will continue that change. We try to present the country and its people in a way people will like.”

There is an appreciation of good fortune that is not always apparent in players of other nationalities but Ivanovic concedes Serbs are natural fighters when it comes to being competitive and all three players share the same tough mentality. Such fortitude deserted her in her hour of need against Henin.

In outplaying Sharapova, as well as beating third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ivanovic produced some of the most powerfully accurate serving seen in women’s tennis. Things went downhill thereafter but even a recollection of the final affords a giggle. “Now it’s funny, but it wasn’t at the time,” she says. “I was so uptight I could not bounce the ball, then I got stressed going for other shots. I experienced something like that a couple of years ago. I was playing the last round of qualifying in what hopefully would be my first ever tier one event in Zurich. I so wanted to win and was thinking more about the result than how I was playing and that made me very tense. I got through but did not seem to learn a lesson from that match. Hopefully the French final will be different. Justine was so clever and she knew how to use my problems to her advantage.”

Many believe Ivanovic, Wimbledon’s sixth seed and the only teenager in the world top 10, will be an even more potent force on grass. She has worked hard on her serve under the occasional guidance of Sven Groeneveld, the Dutch coach who has worked with Mary Pierce, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Greg Rusedski.

Before arriving in Holland, she spent time honing her fitness at the Casal-Sanchez Academy in Barcelona, where Andy Mur-ray spent a few formative years, and believes she will reap the dividends. Groeneveld agrees. “I see so many things in Ana’s game that have potential but she is still in the developmental stage,” he said. “We hope to find a way to maximise what she has, which is big shots and big weapons. Coming into Wimbledon, we will be working on allying her serve to stronger volleys.”

A quarter-final loss to Daniela Hantuchova in ’s-Hertogen-bosch allowed Ivanovic more time to acclimatise at Wimbledon where she will face 137th-ranked Hungarian Melinda Czink in the opening round. Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo potentially awaits in the quarter-finals and a possible rematch against Sharapova in the last four looms.

Holzman has been fending off overtures from the game’s predominant management groups IMG, Octagon and SFX Sports, who lament missing out on a player who is set to become one of the biggest commercial earn-ers in tennis. “They have been quite aggressive and if ultimately they can do a better job for Ana than me, I won’t stand in her way. But I have been reluctant to sign her up to many long-term endorsement deals because the initial offers were not too big and it was clear more lucrative ones were in the near future.

“Currently there is adidas, a racket deal with Wilson and a contract with the same Coty cosmetic company that has contracts with the Beckhams and Jen-nifer Lopez. But there are five or six offers on the table. I am a businessman and I see what has happened with Sharapova. I have no problems with what IMG have done for her, in fact it helped the industry so much in terms of marketability. Before that, there was Anna Kournikova, who was a phenomenon, and there could be no limit to what Ana might financially achieve.”

Being described as “the dark-haired Sharapova” does not sit easily with Ivanovic. She says she is content to let Holzman take care of her commercial activities and doesn’t concern herself greatly with money-mak-ing, but adds: “No woman likes to be compared to anyone. I am flattered when people say these things but it’s about tennis. How you look is nice but it does not help you win points.”

Not in the competitive arena it doesn’t, but away from the court, it is a whole different ball game.
 
#10 ·
THANK YOU predrag! :hug:
 
#11 ·
Serbian teen lacks killer instinct

Ana Ivanovic is one of those people with a naturally nice disposition. She doesn't have that phony smile or behind-the-back, silver-lined tongue like some other high-level athletes do.

On court and off, she's composed, pleasant and intriguing.
Currently ranked No. 17, the 19-year-old Serbian has enormous potential, but she could be lacking that key ingredient that separates champions from pretenders — the ability to stomp on friends and foes alike.

Nice players don't always finish first, or in the case of the bubbly former No. 1 Kim Clijsters, they occasionally finish first but don't completely live up to their potential and become a dominant player.

If you look at the great champions of the past 25 years, all of them had a mean streak or a cold side — Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Venus and Serena Williams, Justine Henin. All of them could also light up a room when in the right frame of mind. But when on court, they were relentless closers.

While Ivanovic flashes the occasional devil-may-care attitude, her angelic face is rarely capable of a demonic stare. Yet she does believe that she's capable of winning Grand Slams and reaching the top.

"I'm very different on-court than off," Ivanovic told FOXSports.com. "It's hard for me to get mean and upset off-court, but once on-court, I think I can be tough and mean. It's hard sometimes, but I realize that sometimes I have to be and that's what keeps me motivated for success."

Motivation has never been a problem for the big-hitting brunette.

Ivanovic is a product of war who learned to play during NATO's 1999 bombing raids on Belgrade. On one such morning, after the air raids had stopped and the "safe" siren sounded, she went out to practice.

It was early spring, and NATO had begun more than three months of bombing of Slobodan Milosovic's Yugoslav government, which it believed to be ethnically cleansing Kosovo Albanians.

But the 11-year-old Ivanovic was already in love with her sport. Nothing would stop her from getting one more practice session in.

"It was a little scary and there were certain times when it was dangerous starting around noon throughout the day and night, but at around 6 a.m. the danger would stop, so for a few hours we would practice," Ivanovic recalled.

While NATO eventually dislodged the Yugoslav government and its Serbian paramilitary police forces, Ivanovic blocked out the politics and conflicts. The reason was simple: From the time she was five when she saw a TV commercial advertising a free tennis clinic, she was hooked on the sport.

So on the first day of bombing, she went to a clinic, danger or no.

"The pro said, 'There's going to be bombing today so maybe it's better we should go home early,' but I wasn't done, so I said, 'Let me just finish a basket, please!'"

The Ivanovic family refused to run and hide. While some of their neighbors went underground, her father, Miroslav, and Dragana, tried to keep the peace inside the household.

"It was tough because I was only 11, but my parents always tried to have us live normal," she said. "We never went into the cellar. That was very important because I didn't want to spend four months in the cellar. We always had a full house of people trying to see the positive side."

Ivanovic showed little fear when potential chaos was around the corner. One day, she went to visit her grandparents and a bomb hit a nearby building.

"I could feel the building and windows shaking and that was most scared that I was," she said. "School stopped, people didn't work and it was tough times, but we knew that it would eventually end."

The bombing did end, but not before Belgrade was wrecked and thousands of Serbs were forced to flee the city in search of a better life. The Ivanovic family eventually moved to Switzerland, where Ana continued her on-court progress, found a backer and better training.

Her parents didn't force her to play — she pushed herself, which is why she simply didn't fade away as a foreign player in a strange locale. Just seven years after they moved, she's top-20 player with the potential to crack the top five.

"I've always loved tennis," she said. "If I would have to choose between a friend's birthday party and practice, I always chose practice. I chose tennis for myself, that's why I don't hate it. It always came from me."

Ivanovic stands 6 feet and has a naturally muscular build and good hands. The only thing stopping her from becoming a top-5 player by year's end is a lack of foot speed, proper balance and the ability to think her way through tough spots.

She can crush the ball off both wings, and with her broad shoulders and sturdy legs, she is one of the few top women who isn't faking it when she launches an inside-out forehand. She's also comes to the net quite a bit and is considered the best young volleyer on the tour.

She had an erratic start to the year, reaching the Tokyo final but bowing out early at Indian Wells and Miami. Last week, she reached the Amelia Island semifinals on green clay, falling to French teen Tatiana Golovin in a long three-setter.

This week, she's seeded seventh at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C., where she could go a long way toward improving her Grand Slam hopes by winning the title. Several top-ranked players, including No. 1 Justine Henin, No. 2 Maria Sharapova, No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo and No. 6 Martina Hingis all withdrew, which could improve Ivanovic's chances.

And those good looks are helping her popularity. Though Maria Sharapova is the current poster child of women's tennis, Ivanovic was named the sport's sexiest player by a fan poll on one Internet site last year, edging out the popular Russian. Her response was to thank her fans, but she added that she was sure she was honored because of her on-court success.

"I think people know me because of how I play tennis, not because of how I look," she said. "But I'm willing to do something different and interesting to keep my tennis for a while."

But when asked whether she could see herself designing her own clothes a la Sharapova and Serena, or leading a red carpet-lifestyle, she waved the question away.

"I enjoy playing tennis," she said. "It's hard work. Like every girl, I like to see what's in, but as far as fashion and design, I don't like that. It's crazy to think about me as model. My dreams are still tennis dreams."
http://msn.foxsports.com/tennis/story/6660184
 
#12 ·
NATO eventually dislodged the Yugoslav government
i hate it when they take credit for that even though they contributed nothing to the downfall of the milosevic dictatorship which was bound to fall at the first possible occasion anyway :rolleyes: and reading about the 11-years-old ana in a war zone just makes me angry :mad:

other than that thanks for the article :p
 
#13 ·
don't shoot the messenger :nerner:
 
#19 ·
Ana named sexiest player at Wimbledon
July 13, 2007 /


The Sun, the biggest-selling newspaper in Britain, has named Ana as the sexiest player at this year’s Wimbledon. Readers of the tabloid publication chose Ana above all other women as the best-looking player to compete at the All England Club this year.

The award is the latest in a long list of accolades Ana has received for her looks. Last year she was named the most attractive female tennis player by The Tennis Channel, and a year earlier tennisrep0rters.net gave her the same award.

Ana’s occasional doubles partner Maria Kirilenko finished second, while Maria Sharapova and Daniela Hantuchova were joint third.

Semi-finalist Ana was the only player among the 'most attractive' quartet to progress beyond the fourth round.
:lick: :drool: :kiss: :hearts:
 
#20 ·
Court sirens call shots in the glamour game

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/06/29/sthodg129.xml

Apart from Tatiana Golovin and her red knickers, the women have been wearing a uniform of 'predominantly white' clothing at Wimbledon. But the Frenchwoman is not the only one with a bit of flair and personality in the women's game. This collection of striking photographs demonstrates that the sport is not filled with automatons who spend their days thinking only about tennis, tennis and more tennis.

There is a reason why Ana Ivanovic did a photo-shoot wearing a dress in a swimming pool. Ivanovic, the runner-up at the French Open and the world No 6 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, learnt to play tennis on a court marked out in an emptied pool. Apparently, she always had to hit down the lines, as any attempt to run down a cross-court shot would lead to a collision with the walls of the pool. "It was impossible to play," the 19-year-old said. "But that's where I grew up practising and it's where people still practise."
As for Jelena Jankovic, another Serbian and the world No 3, she posed next to studio lights as she aspires to become a screen actress once she is finished with her tennis career. Jankovic would probably just smile and grin all the way through any film role. "I was even offered a role in a movie in Serbia once," she said.

Frenchwoman Severine Bremond was photographed with a grand piano, as she once harboured dreams of becoming a concert pianist. "I wish I could sing and play the piano, but I only ever sing in the shower," Bremond said. A close friend of hers on the tour, France's Camille Pin, disclosed that, in between tournaments, she spends her time scuba-diving.

Jie Zheng was the first Chinese woman to win a Grand Slam title, while Maria Kirilenko could have become a ballet dancer rather than a tennis player. The Russian's mother sent her to ballet school when she was five. "She wanted me to move around a bit more because I was fat," said Kirilenko. How things have changed. She is now employed as a model for a range of tennis clothes designed by Stella McCartney, the daughter of former Beatle Paul. "It's nice to look good, but first and foremost I concentrate on my game."
I want to see the others from the photo shoot :D
 
#21 ·
A couple of little ones:

Strawberries and green
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...trawberries_and_green/articleshow/2182929.cms

[Other players mentioned include Sharapova, Nikki, Daniela, Venus and some men]

Ana Ivanovic

Ranked sixth in the world, the gorgeous Ana is in high demand with the international press at Wimbledon. They have delighted in the warm, down-to-earth personality of the Serbian Smasher, as she is known. She has also been described as "the Queen of Hearts", "a model pro" and one newspaper even ran the headline "Ana From Heaven."She also revealed that she didn't receive any Valentine's cards, even though she has been called the prettiest female player ever grace at Wimbledon.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...imes/Courting_Glamour/articleshow/2165414.cms

[Other players include: Makiri, Mirza, JJ, Williams' sisters, Sharapova]

Ana Ivanovic

She started her career at the age of 5 and first caught the eye of the tennis world when she reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament in 2004. The dazzling Serb burst onto the scene by winning her first career singles titles, as a qualifier, in Canberra, Australia in 2005. Her ranking continued to rise till she headed into the 2007 French Open, including a victory over Maria Sharapova. The 20-year-girl who broke Aravane Rezai, to take a 2-0 lead, at Wimbledon, is a stunner on the court and off it too. Ana is a blend of grit, grace and glamour. And while the grace and glamour are nice to the eye, it's her grit that makes her a champion. It is said that she has the number 1 visited website of all female sports stars.
 
#22 ·
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#23 ·
an opportunity for me to post something :angel:

http://sport.orf.at/070813-12434/?href=http://sport.orf.at/070813-12434/12420bigstory_txt.html

Neue Großmacht im Miniformat
Wien-Starter Djokovic gelang es als erstem Spieler, Federer und Nadal bei einem Turnier zu schlagen.

Ana Ivanovic und Novak Djokovic haben zumindest drei Dinge gemeinsam: Sie sind jung, serbische Tennisstars und aktuelle Turniersieger.

Ivanovic, die im November 20 Jahre alt wird, setzte sich am Sonntag im Endspiel des mit 600.000 Dollar dotierten WTA-Turniers von Los Angeles gegen die Russin Nadja Petrowa 7:5 6:4 durch.

Djokovic, nicht ganz ein halbes Jahr älter als seine Landsfrau, verpatzte beim Masters-Turier in Montreal Roger Federer die erhoffte Party zum 50. Turniersieg und bezwang den Titelverteidiger 7:6 (7/2) 2:6 7:6 (7/2).

Damit haben beide serbischen Jungstars ihren Aufwärtstrend vor den in zwei Wochen beginnenden US Open erneut deutlich unter Beweis gestellt. Sie durften sich über den vierten bzw. sechsten Turniersieg ihrer Karriere freuen.

Trio auf den Rängen drei und vier
Während Djokovic als neuer Dritter der Weltrangliste bei den serbischen Herren relativ alleine auf weiter Flur steht (nur Janko Tipsarevic scheint als 47. noch in den Top 100 auf), hat Ivanovic in Jelena Jankovic eine gleichwertige Partnerin im Team.

Die 22-Jährige, die sich im Halbfinale von Los Angeles ihrer Landsfrau in drei Sätzen geschlagen geben musste, liegt im WTA-Ranking als Dritte sogar noch einen Platz vor Ivanovic, die seit Montag erstmals Nummer vier im WTA-Computer ist.

Der größte bisherige Erfolg
Djokovic, der bei der 22. BA-CA-Trophy im Oktober die Nummer eins in der Wiener Stadthalle sein wird, freute sich nach dem Erfolg gegen den zweifachen Montreal-Sieger Federer natürlich entsprechend.

"Es ist ein unglaublicher Sieg für mich. Es war ein noch größerer Erfolg als in Miami (wo er im März seinen ersten Erfolg bei einem Masters-Series-Turnier feierte, Anm.), denn ich habe es geschafft, in den letzten drei Runden die Top Drei der Welt zu schlagen. Ein Traum ist wahr geworden."

Der junge Serbe hatte sich in Montreal der Reihe nach gegen Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal und schließlich - erstmals im fünften Duell - gegen den Weltranglisten-Ersten aus der Schweiz durchgesetzt.

So etwas war zuletzt Boris Becker 1994 in Stockholm gelungen, als er der Reihe nach Michael Stich (ATP-Nr. 3), Pete Sampras (1) und Goran Ivanisevic (2) aus dem Turnier warf.

Noch nicht am Ziel
Djokovic, heuer schon im Halbfinale von Paris und Wimbledon, macht kein Hehl daraus, dass er damit spekuliert, einmal die Nummer eins der Welt zu werden.

"Es ist noch ein weiter Weg, obwohl ich schon die Nummer drei bin. Ich kann nicht sagen, dass ich daran denke, in einem oder zwei Jahren die Nummer eins zu sein. Ich werde weiter daran arbeiten und so weitermachen wie bisher. Es ist das Ziel meines Lebens, einmal die Nummer eins zu sein, aber ich habe noch viel Zeit."

"Die kommende Nummer eins"
Der Rechtshänder aus Belgrad hat sich in weniger als zwei Jahren von Platz 280 in die Top Drei gespielt. Und dabei wird es laut Nadal nicht bleiben. "Er ist die kommende Nummer eins", so der Spanier.

Auch Federer traut dem Youngster den ganz großen Sprung zu. "Djokovic hat sich innerhalb des vergangenen Jahres stark verbessert. Wenn seine Entwicklung so weitergeht, hat er bald Chancen, ein Grand-Slam-Turnier zu gewinnen. Der Sieg hier in Montreal könnte sein ganz großer Durchbruch gewesen sein."

Niemand ist unschlagbar
Ein ähnliches Ziel wie ihr Landsmann hat wohl auch Ivanovic. Die 19-Jährige, die heuer in Paris erst im Endspiel an Justine Henin gescheitert war und in Wimbledon bis ins Halbfinale kam, hat sich zuletzt gegen zahlreiche Top-Ten-Spielerinnen durchgesetzt.

"Ich habe die meisten der Spitzenspielerinnen geschlagen, und das gibt mir viel Selbstvertrauen. Im Frauen-Tennis kann jede jede schlagen. Wenn ich gegen besser gereihte Spielerinnen antrete, habe ich das Gefühl, auch sie schlagen zu können."

Ivanovic hat von den Spitzenspielerinnen bisher nur Henin und die Williams-Schwestern nicht auf ihrer "Abschussliste". Das könnte sich aber schon bei den US Open ändern. "Ich würde sie gerne herausfordern und wieder gegen sie spielen. Denn ich glaube, ich hätte definitiv eine gute Chance."

Serbiens Tennis sieht jedenfalls einer rosigen Zukunft entgegen.
i will try to translate the article tomorrow (unless somebody does it before me).
 
#27 ·
a loose translation:

new superpower in small format
novak djokovic (who will play the tournament in vienna in october) is the first player to defeat both federer and nadal in one tournament

ana ivanovic and novak djokovic have at least 3 things in common: they are young, serbian tennis stars and current tournament champions.

ivanovic, who will turn 20 in november, defeated nadia petrova of russia 7:5 6:4 in the sunday final of the $600k tournament in los angeles.

djokovic, who is less than half a year older than his compatriot, ruined for federer the expected 50th title party by defeating him 7:6 (7/2) 2:6 7:6 (7/2)

with their victories both serbian stars convincingly continue their rise 2 weeks before the us open. they could celebrate their 4th and 6th title respectively.

trio ranked 3 & 4
while djokovic who is new nr3 in the world stands almost alone as a serbian player on atp tour (only janko tipsarevic ranked 47 is in the top 100) ivanovic has in jelena jankovic an equal partner in team :)unsure:)

the 22 years old, who was defeated by her compatriot in 3 sets in the semifinal, is ranked even one place better than ivanovic, who is nr 4 in the world in the wta-computer on monday.

(i'm too lazy to translate the part dedicated to nole, but it basically talks about his ambition to reach the nr 1 and it says that defeating 3 best players in the world in one tournament is an amazing feat.)

nobody is unbeatable
ivanovic has a goal similar to her compatriot. the 19 years old, who was defeated in the final of rg by justine henin and reached the semifinal of wimbledon, has lately enjoyed success over numerous players from the top 10.

"i have defeated most top 10 players and that gives me a lot of confidence. in women's tannis anyone can beat anyone. if i player against better ranked players i have the feeling that i can beat them as well."

the only top player ivanovic still hasn't defeated are henin and williams sisters. however, that could change already at the us open. "i would like to challenge them and play against them again. because i believe i'd really have a chance to win."

in any case the future of serbian tannis looks bright.
 
#28 · (Edited)
The Financial Times (UK)

Looks, talent and personality

By Eleanor Preston
Published: August 17 2007 18:46



If there is an ideal of tennis perfection in looks, talent and personality, Ana Ivanovic is probably it. There are pretty players, gifted players and personable players but the 19-year-old Serbian is all three. She could have been dreamt up in a laboratory by white-coated scientists on a mission to make the ultimate 21st-century female player.

Small wonder, then, that if she wins the US Open, which starts in just over a week, she is likely to eclipse defending champion Maria Sharapova as the most marketable individual in the women’s game.


Ivanovic has signalled she is capable of following up May’s run to the French Open final, where she lost heavily to Justine Henin, by winning her debut grand-slam title in New York three weeks today. She built on her performances at Roland Garros by reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon and has just broken into the world’s top five, sitting at number four, her highest ever ranking.

She lost unexpectedly early in the Rogers Cup in Toronto this week, but that followed a tough week in Los Angeles where she won her fourth tour title. And last year, she proved her ability on American hard courts when winning the US Open Series by being the top female performer in the string of tournaments that lead up to the season’s final major.

Her success in the US 12 months ago, however, failed to be a portent for the main event itself, a pattern that was frequently repeated early in her career. She emerged from the juniors teeming with potential but took time to adjust to life among the professionals. Her looks ensured that she received plenty of attention, but she struggled to make the transition from starring in advertisements for WTA Tour sponsor Sony Ericsson to taking a leading role where it really mattered – on court.

It is one of the cruelties of tennis that it does not allow for gradual development and instead praises prodigies such as Rafael Nadal and Sharapova, who sparkled at 17 but whose careers may not prove to have the same longevity of some of their slower-burning peers. Ivanovic’s rate of progression is more like that of Roger Federer, who was a star at junior level but did not win his first grand-slam title until he was nearly 22. It took a breakthrough – in Federer’s case qualifying for the 2002 Masters Cup in Shanghai – to give him the self-belief required to go from being potential champion to champion. Ivanovic’s effort in making the French Open final could be a similarly career-defining moment.

Few people are better placed to measure her progress than Sven Groenefeld, who worked with a young Federer and has also had long-term coaching relationships with Mary Pierce and Greg Rusedski, among others. Groenefeld is now special adviser to Ivanovic’s sponsor Adidas, and appears to have earned his salary by convincing her that she was more than just a pretty face.

With Groenefeld’s guidance, she became fitter and her passive, predictable game became much more aggressive and vibrant, and thus far more of a match for the bigger hitters at the top of the game. Her cheerful disposition ensured that she was always liked by her rivals but these days she is feared by them, too.

The experienced Russian Nadia Petrova, who Ivanovic beat in the Los Angeles final last week, rates her forehand as one of the most potent weapons in the women’s game. “I would say she just rips it off without even thinking,” said Petrova. “Comparing with any other players, it is the best forehand by far on tour. Her fitness coach did a good job with her [too], she’s lost some weight and is dangerous. Even out of difficult positions, she’s coming up with big shots.”

Groenefeld says: “I think the biggest improvement is her agility, her flexibility and her movement on court so she is set up much better for the ball now. She’s retrieving a lot better and she’s making her opponents play a lot more balls. Definitely, physically she’s made a huge leap and that has allowed her to play a game that suits her better.

“What I try to do is to have a game-plan A and B, and try to find answers for her. It’s basically simple. Life throws you questions and you have to find an answer. It’s the same on the court – what does your opponent offer you and what you can answer with?

“Through being involved with Federer at the early stage, that is a quality that Roger really perfects. He looks at a player and says, this guy is doing this and that really well, so I’ll find an answer and maybe throw an answer to them and see what they’ve got. Ana is doing that and she’s learning how to play the game.”

The fact that it has taken time to complete her tennis education should not be a surprise, indeed it is remarkable that she managed to become a professional at all, given where she comes from. She first wanted to play tennis at the age of five after seeing Monica Seles on television and remembered the number of the local club by heart so that she could nag her mother into calling it.

Yet this was Belgrade in the difficult years following the Balkans War and facilities for talented young tennis players were so spartan that she was famously forced to practice in an empty swimming pool. While she is too young to remember the war itself, Ivanovic was living in Belgrade when Nato forces bombed the city in 1999, and had to cope with the stigma of coming from a country that was then an international pariah.

“In ’99 when the bombing was, I was a little bit afraid. But then by the time you got used to it, you realised that they are not bombing just everything, just special buildings,” she explained. “It was hard financially then. But also, afterwards, the problem was to get visas to travel. Even now I have so many problems to get visa to go abroad to tournament.”

While much has been made of the emergence of talented Serbian players such as Ivanovic, Novak Djokovic and Jelena Jankovic, none really flourished until they left Serbia as young teenagers and went to train elsewhere. While Djokovic went to Germany and Jankovic to Nick Bollettieri’s academy in Florida, Ivanovic headed for Switzerland, where she still trains. No wonder it has taken a while for her to reach what appears to be the brink of everything that young tennis players dream of. She seems poised to turn an imperfect past into a perfect future.


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#29 ·
Reuters (UK)

Ivanovic looks for further grand slam success
Mon Aug 20, 2007 3:00AM BST

By Matthew Cronin


LOS ANGELES, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Serb Ana Ivanovic cracked the world top five after reaching the French Open final and Wimbledon semi-finals and now has her sights set on making a big splash at next week's U.S. Open.

"I feel more confident in my game and I feel like I've improved a lot," the 19-year-old Belgrade native told Reuters in an interview.

"I'm very excited to play another grand slam. I've played the U.S. open before and never reached the second week. My goal is to get there for the first time."

With a big serve, one of the most powerful forehands on the women's tour and a sound volley, the 6-foot-tall (1.83 metres) Ivanovic has hit her stride in 2007.

She won her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Tier I title in Berlin in May and then at the French Open stunned world number two Maria Sharapova and number four Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the final, where she was buried by Justine Henin.

At Wimbledon, Ivanovic avoided a natural letdown and powered to the semi-finals, knocking out fellow teenager Nicole Vaidisova in a dramatic three-set quarter-final before falling to eventual champion Venus Williams in the semis.

"It was amazing," Ivanovic said. "It took some time to realise what was happening and that I beat so many top players. But I got more mature and put in the hard work and I could control my emotions much better. I was happy that I finally got the results."

Ivanovic had already showed promise in 2006, winning the Canadian Open, but her results were inconsistent.


BIGGER PUSH

But this year she felt her conditioning had improved, as had her mental approach and she was ready to make a bigger push.

"Somewhere deep inside I felt this," she said. "Winning Berlin helped. I felt more confident and relaxed and I knew not to get too over-excited. That's when I start missing and then I want to improve too fast, then I start to miss and get out of my rhythm."

Ivanovic said much of the key to her success has been her new-found ability to think about what she should be doing technically and strategically in the moment, rather than what lies ahead of her.

She said in her loss to Henin in the French Open final, she had forgotten to do that.

"I was thinking I can win a grand slam now and then it all changed and I got too nervous, but I learned from that."

The Serb is proud that she was able to rebound at Wimbledon and reach the semi-finals, but there she experienced a slight tear in her left knee, which affected her in her loss to Williams.

She consequently pulled out of tournaments at Stanford and San Diego but walked away with the top prize when she made her comeback in Los Angeles.

Ivanovic believes she has found her place in the top echelon of the game.

"I feel an excitement to be where I am," she said. "Reaching the top 10 was my goal for a while and now I feel my game is at a really high level.

"But I need to take it step by step and not think too much about it, because it's dangerous if I don't think realistically."
 
#30 ·
#31 ·
The New York Observer


Welcome, Power Serbs!

Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic, 19 and 20, Threaten to Up-End U.S. Open; McEnroe Says He’s Better Than Roddick; She’s Already the Hottest

by John Koblin

Published: August 21, 2007



Ana Ivanovic, the modest 19-year-old Serbian tennis player, spent this past weekend traveling between the players’ hotel, at the Le Méridien on 57th Street, and the U.S. Open Tennis Center in Queens on a bus that departs once an hour. She is sharing a room with her mom. She’ll be in bed by 10:30, reading The Secret, the best-selling Rhonda Byrne self-help book.

“I want to go to Abercrombie and Fitch,” she said. “I want to get jeans. Their jeans fit me best.”

If she has time, she said, she’ll go to Macy’s too.

Some female tennis stars crave the chance to land high-end endorsement deals, to dress in Prada, to start their own fashion lines. Ana Ivanovic is not one of them. At a time when women’s tennis has been ravaged by indifference, injuries and shameless self-promotion, she may be just the player the Women’s Tennis Association desperately needs. She’s humble, smart, hungry and ridiculously attractive. Oh—and she has perhaps the best forehand in tennis.

Starting Aug. 27, when the three-week U.S. Open kicks off, she’ll be a star.

[Power Serbs: Novak Djokovic, 20, Has Beaten the Best]

On Aug. 19, eight days before the start of the tournament, she strolled into the players’ lounge on the second floor at Arthur Ashe Stadium. She’s got an athletic shape, at 6-foot-1 and 159 pounds. She has almond-shaped brown eyes and a deep brown tan. She wore a pink Adidas T-shirt, and her hair in a ponytail and looked, despite the fact that she had just spent the previous 90 minutes hitting tennis balls, completely fresh.

She arrived accompanied only by her mother, who speaks little English and quickly excused herself from the room.

“I’m sorry for being late,” she said. (She was less than 10 minutes late.) “I was practicing.”

Ivanovic talks in long, unpunctuated sentences full of false starts (“I think, you know, so, yeah …”) but her English, which she learned nine years ago, is fantastically—refreshingly—expressive in a way that the language of the hyper-media-trained players from America and Western Europe rarely is.

She discussed her game, where in the last year she’s made a steady climb from 16th to No. 4 in the world, the youngest player in the top 10.

“For quite a long time I was around 20th, and I obviously wanted to make this step and break in the top 10,” she said. “I just needed more confidence and more consistency in my game so I would win against top players more often.”

She’s done exactly that. This year, she’s 5-0 against Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic, the No. 2 and No. 3 players in the world, respectively. And she landed in the French Open final and the Wimbledon semifinals, her best-ever finishes in Grand Slams.

When it comes to tennis fundamentals, Ivanovic’s most powerful strength is her forehand. She begins the stroke with her arm turned at a high-arching angle that she whips down to smash through the ball in a style reminiscent of Steffi Graf. She learned it when she was 11.

“Since I was young they always told me I had a powerful forehand,” she said. “Really, growing up I realized that’s my biggest weapon, so I want to use it as much as I can.”

She’s also dramatically improved her movement on the court—helping her to move up 12 spots in the world tennis rankings in the past year—and she’s working on an increasingly powerful serve.

But what separates her most from the rest of the women’s game is a growing, almost preternatural understanding of the psychological vagaries of the sport—a rite of passage for every champion.

When Ivanovic was asked about the most important match she ever played, she spoke briefly about her biggest win—defeating Sharapova in the French semis—but more extensively of her most spectacular loss, when she was routed by Justine Henin at Roland Garros in her first Grand Slam final, 6-1, 6-2. “Even if I lost the final and didn’t play the best tennis, I still learned so much from that experience,” she said.

“Each match until the final, I was thinking ‘O.K., this match, I want to play the best I can and see how this goes.’ In the final, I thought ‘Oh, my God, I could win Grand Slam! I might win Grand Slam!’ It went from technical part to emotional part and that was the big mistake. I wasn’t ready for that. Once I was on the court, all these emotions came and I didn’t know how to deal with it. But next time, if I’m in that situation, before the match I know I’m going to feel these emotions and be ready to put them aside and know how to focus.”

After a pause, she added, “Very easy to say, much harder to do, but this match helped me a lot.”

She described Henin as the player she feared the most on tour. (“She’s a great mover and doesn’t make many unforced errors so she makes you win points more than once.”)

And she discussed Venus and Serena Williams—the leaders of the women’s game over the past decade, against whom collectively she is 0-4—with equal humility.

“They both play very powerful,” she said. “It’s still something I have to practice hard on because they don’t give me much time to play my game. They dominate—they are the ones dictating. I really hope I can play against them soon because then I’m more comfortable with that kind of game.”

In other words, the more she sees them, the more she’ll learn and the better she’ll play against them. She’s a true strategist at heart, even though she technically plays without a coach. (She’s given one through her endorsement deal with Adidas, but he’s regarded as a consultant.)

It also says something about her makeup that she is most eager to face the players most likely to expose the weak point in her game: her lack of mobility, which leads to an inability to return strongly hit shots in the far court.

“My biggest weakness, there are so many girls that are hitting very powerful—myself, I hit quite fast—but when someone hits it even harder and faster then it’s going to be hard because I still want to have enough time to adjust and have time to hit the ball,” she said. “I’m working a lot on that aspect right now.”

HER TENNIS CAREER BEGAN WHEN she was four years old and living in a town just outside of Belgrade. She saw a commercial during a televised match between Monica Seles and some player she couldn’t remember, before she understood what tennis really was. It was an important moment.

“In between breaks there was commercial for tennis school,” she said. “I remembered the number and asked my mom to call it for me and for fifth birthday my father bought me small tennis racket and a month later I stared playing tennis.”

Her game, however, isn’t patterned after Seles’s or, Ivanovic will say, anyone else’s. Ivanovic said she didn’t watch much tennis at all as an adolescent or as a teenager. (When I made reference during the interview to the 1999 French Open final between Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis, easily one of women’s tennis most famous matches ever, Ivanovic said she wasn’t familiar with it.)

“It just comes naturally,” she said. “Basically, I think technique is very individual.”

Her early life has been recounted by tennis writers in largely the same way: She grew up in poverty-stricken and war-torn Serbia and grew up playing tennis on a makeshift court inside a converted pool.

That’s partly the truth. When she was 11, she actually began practicing mostly in a tennis bubble, which was reserved for the country’s elite players. She also played on three clay courts in the town next to where she grew up, which may help explain how she won 16 out of 19 matches on clay this year. As a teenager, she began traveling to Switzerland, the European version of the Florida tennis factory.

It was also at the age of 11 that she changed the grip of her forehand, which resulted in the more powerful, looping stroke that is now her most lethal weapon. That change come at the recommendation of her former coach, Dejan Vranes, the person Ivanovic credits most for making her a top five tennis player.

Although he’s no longer her coach—he’s now the Serbian head coach during the international tournament, the Fed Cup—he remains close to Ivanovic. (At the interview, she wore a pair of earrings he gave her when she reached the French Open final.)



THE NEXT BIG STEP FOR IVANOVIC, if she is to continue on her breakneck trajectory, is to make the final at a major played on hard courts. She’s never made it past the third round at the U.S. Open.

On Sunday, she practiced at Louis Armstrong Stadium and said the courts are playing slow—much slower than they were at a warm-up tournament in Toronto a week ago, when she was bounced out of the first round by an unranked Chinese player.

One of the big wildcard factors over the next three weeks, for Ivanovic, will be the reaction of the fans.

New Yorkers always pick a player or two to carry on a wave of good feelings to the championships.

Ivanovic likes this.

“The French and Wimbledon, it’s higher class and it’s very traditional,” she said. “Here, it’s a lot of people and a lot of people that know a lot about tennis. It’s much more enjoyable in this tournament.”

And she could just become It.

The W.T.A. women’s tour is starving for idols at the moment. Kim Clijsters, who won the U.S. Open two years ago, retired this year at age 23. Other marquee players are no longer factors: Amelie Mauresmo is injured; Martina Hingis is trying a comeback after squandering years on a premature retirement.

Maria Sharapova, last year’s winner, was widely regarded as the next star of tennis. She certainly is that—she made more in endorsements last year than any female athlete ever—but with her predictable forehand-and-serve game, she hasn’t quite lived up to those expectations on the court.

Ivanovic, for her part, has begun to receive the star treatment—there are already a number of professional-looking Ivanovic fan-worship sites on the Web—but she seems to regard the press attention, the photo shoots and the all-around notoriety with the same even attitude that she applies to everything else.

“It’s good to do something different and forget about court and practice,” she said. “But it’s also important to keep a good balance, because at the end of the day they ask you to do commercial because you achieved something good in tennis, so in order to achieve more you have to practice hard.”
 
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