Tennis Forum banner

~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."
 
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: Tsveti's#1Fan
#707 ·
I'm sick and tired about womans tennis and confused by all newest (controversial) news about Ana...

In monday will start European Mans Championships in Basketball (in Poland) and I will try (if that is possible :p) to forget about Ana for couple weeks because thinking about her in this moment is so frustrating... even painful.

Here is link of articles section at official Eurobasket 2009 site: http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/coid_SywzcsJzJToYcOgTRcLq63.articleMode_on.html, and my advice for all here who also is over-frustrated about Ana at the moment to forget about her in next week or two and redirect your attention to something else.

:wavey:
 
#714 ·
Here is link of articles section at official Eurobasket 2009 site: http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/coid_SywzcsJzJToYcOgTRcLq63.articleMode_on.html, and my advice for all here who also is over-frustrated about Ana at the moment to forget about her in next week or two and redirect your attention to something else.

:wavey:
Nobody here still not take seriously my advice how (and where) to escape from Ana for next two weeks... :haha: :haha:

But please believe me... some of that Eurobasket/09 articles are so interesting :drool: (so follow that link)
 
#708 ·
Forget Ana is a little bit difficult to me, even in the situation she is right now. Anyway I will follow the Eurobasket for sure. I think we play against Serbia the first match, I think.
 
#711 ·
My problem is that I love tennis.. I play 3 times a week, watch all the time. I do this since I was 5. And I don't feel like not watching tennis just to detach from Ana. Because right now, whenever I see a tennis match, I can't help but think about her.

I find basketball almost as boring as golf.. :lol::tape::help:
 
#712 ·
My problem is that I love tennis.. I play 3 times a week, watch all the time. I do this since I was 5. And I don't feel like not watching tennis just to detach from Ana. Because right now, whenever I see a tennis match, I can't help but think about her.

I find basketball almost as boring as golf.. :lol::tape::help:
Basketball boring :eek::eek:
You can`t be serious :lol: We have such a good tradition regarding basketball,so many medals ,good players,coaches, just everything :hearts::hearts::worship:
It`s probably like football in Brazil
 
#720 ·
i like basket too, especially euroleague... i root for Turkish teams somehow, Efes Pilsen and Ulker (now Fenerbahce i think) Istanbul... they never won it though:eek:

We had great teams in Italy about 10 years ago (2 from Bologna and 1 from Treviso) but now is a bit worse, only Siena is good...
 
#724 ·
Hmm, you've won a battle, but we'll win the war!!!!!! xDD

No, they played too bad. C'mon they are World Champions and Silver Medalist last year at Beijing 08. I know Serbia is a very good team, but Spain was awful tonight. Anyway I believe in them.

We should create a new thread called "Other Sports" or something like that, no? I dont think its a good place to talk about Eurobasket xD
 
#725 ·
Hmm, you've won a battle, but we'll win the war!!!!!! xDD

No, they played too bad. C'mon they are World Champions and Silver Medalist last year at Beijing 08. I know Serbia is a very good team, but Spain was awful tonight. Anyway I believe in them.

We should create a new thread called "Other Sports" or something like that, no? I dont think its a good place to talk about Eurobasket xD
:lol: true
You weren`t playing good but we were also choking a little bit at the end :tape:
It`s a first match,you will pick up your game don`t worry
Maybe we could i don`t know
 
#727 ·
Not really... she says she learnt how to be patient:rolleyes:, that she's practicing mostly with men and this improved her game:rolleyes::rolleyes:, that in life priorities changes and now her main priority is to win tournaments again on the tour. She says that her main characteristics are honesty and trust in others, which lead to her having an inner peace necessary, together with determination and training, to play for winning, always:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

The article is so well written like a book, i'm pretty sure they changed/added some depth to Ana's words...:lol::p
 
#730 ·
According to Serbian press, Ana is in Belgrade, training hard for Asia tournaments. She's working with Serbian Fed Cup captain Dejan Vranjes (some kind of cooperation). She's just training hard away from publicity surrounded by her family. She believes that's the best way to prepare for the upcoming tournaments.
 
#731 ·
That's great to hear! :) See guys, she is working and focusing on her tennis. Hopefully working with Vranjes will be helpful to her. At least she is working with a coach and not by herself. A coach she had success with and who know each other well.
 
#732 ·
Ana + training = :inlove:

I hope the hard work eventually pays off for her. If not this season, I still hope for a banging return 2010:hearts:
 
#733 ·
Some kid came to my door this summer selling magazines subscriptions, and I put in an order for Tennis magazine from him. Finally got the first issue today. There is an article all about Ana called 'Ana Agonistes' in it(october issue) and it is written by Stephen Tignor. Not sure if im allowed to type the whole thing out or not, but maybe someone else can find it on the web. Not much new in though, except another bikini photo with Adam Scott:p
Main thing id quote from it:
"Her serve is an issue," says Cahill. "There's a technical problem with her toss that she's been working extremely hard to fix." The serve, of course, isn't just another shot. "If you cant control that," Cahill says, "it affects your sense of control over your whole game."
 
#734 ·
Thanks Jonny!

The articles in Tennis Magazine are not available online. I saw earlier today that there was a feature on Ana in this month's issue, and posted it on the mourning thread. But it's just the title, there is nothing else at the web. So thanks for the post!

It's interesting about the serve.. so strange though.. 2 years ago Ana had one of the best serves on tour.. now it's awful.. how did the ball toss get so messed up?

Anything else interesting? I would like to read the whole thing.. :sobbing:

Out of curiosity.. is the pic new? meaning, another beach date? :lol:
 
#735 ·
Still.. I don't know if they mention it or even think about it.. but Ana has been losing matches not only because of her serve.. with messed up toss/serve and all she gets herself in the position to win.. and when it's in her hands to just clinch it, she loses. It's not a matter of hitting one more good serve.. it's a matter of holding on to her leads and taking the wins. They needs to work on that almost as much as on the serve.
 
#744 ·
I read the Tennis Magazine feature today. I thought it was a nice article.. Tignor has a soft spot for Ana. He ends the article with something like this: "Whatever Ivanovic's struggles are, we can root for her to overcome them. There is few or no people who would argue that tennis is better with Ana Ivanovic winnning. When she is clicking with her smooth, "agreessiv" groundstrokes, and bubbling in victory speeches, she makes the sport look good, like fun, like something to love."

Also, Cahill says something like this: "Ana is throughohly a nice person, with a big heart and an innocent inteligence. I can give her the simplest advice and she will look wide eyed, like it's a revelation. She knows how to make a coach feel good."

Kardon also has some quotes in the article. He says that Ana is someone who is easy to coach, since she wants it badly and pushes herself very hard. But she puts a lot of inner presure on herself and has gone through a "turmoil" in 2009. He says that he believes that to turn things around Ana needs to find a plan to use in matches to control her emotions. I agree with that.. more often than not her emotions are all over the place and prevent her to play with any clarity of mind.
 
#746 ·
:sobbing:

I still have trouble to understand how she got this far.. the worst time of Ana's career is coming right after the best... how? why? ugh.. :sad:
 
#751 ·
There is a Tennis week interview with Sven. I think it was done in NY right after or during the USO. Concerning Ana, I don't really like it.. but it might be just me. This is the coach oriented part, as he discusses some other thingsd as well.. I've bolded the parts related to Ana..

Tennis Week: Is there any connection between your work with Orange Coach and your role with adidas?

Sven Groeneveld: They’re totally separate. I did put a lot of thought into it because institutions are looking into how to create better support for the players. The USTA have done a great job in using private facilities as well as their own national training center for player development. Adidas has a program that shows that there is great interest in great coaching and education of the players. Over time, I feel that we also create a new market for the coaches. If we show as a group that we are qualified and organized there will probably be more companies interested to have this format.

Tennis Week: Is that the future of professional coaching? Assembling teams as adidas has done or incorporating existing teams as the USTA has done? And if so is that good for tennis and coaches?

Sven Groeneveld: Yes, that’s the direction I feel it’s going to go. I do like that direction because it offers job security and because it gives recognition to the coach and that is now evident in maybe the federations, but outside of that it was not always possible. But if you look at Sanchez-Casals or Bollettieri’s IMG Academy: they always had coaches who were going on tour with the players. So that’s why I think if the coaches are more organized I feel like we can actually improve the quality of the players and protect the coaches from being taken advantage of and this is where we are in a stage of separating from Orange Coach, which is a way to launch this platform. It will be totally independent of Orange Coach once it is running.

Tennis Week: So what will Orange Coach become? What will its function become?

Sven Groeneveld: There was a link because I am part owner of Orange Coach. I tried to formulate it as an association because we needed a lot of voices. I said I will just launch it this way so then I can show the ATP, WTA and ITF that there is an interest and now it’s just a matter of working together with them who have already said “We are ready. We want to help.” So it’s just a matter of time to get this on a level to the extent where we can come up with a criteria for the professional coach and I need the ATP, WTA and ITF’s advice for what they see as the criteria. I mean, I can sit here and say “you need this many years of experience, you need this certification, you have to have worked with this level of player” but I would like to hear from them what they see as a criteria and that’s why I tell them “I need your help” and I have gone to them for that guidance.

Tennis Week: From a player perspective, I would think this would be a positive in that it gives players a pool of legitimate, qualified coaches to choose from. But have managers and agents been wary of this idea of standardized contracts for coaches, especially given how transient the job can be?

Sven Groeneveld: The companies I’ve been in touch with over the years have responded very positively. They’ve made some contracts with guys with Orange Coach. It’s so much easier and a lot more professional for them to deal with coaches in this way. They see it as a way that they can identify coaches and they don’t have to speculate they can say “He is a qualified, registered, recognized coach by these governing bodies of tennis.” That’s what we need to go to. It may take five to 10 years to get that established but as I said this is my goal to try to get it to that level.

Tennis Week: You’ve been coaching a long time. How has coaching changed during your time on the job and what are the challenges you face now that perhaps were not there when you started?

Sven Groeneveld: It has changed. Individual coaching, one-on-one, has come to a time where I said I’m working with these players, I feel like I’m helping them. But I felt I was not developing myself. So I was looking for ways to develop myself. When the opportunity came to work with adidas it gave me the opportunity to have a new outlook on how to work with players because now we work with a group. We work with six or seven players sometimes and we really have to treat each player as an individual and the most important individual each time. The challenge is really maximizing their time during training sessions. We can be a lot more direct in this format. We can be very direct in what we believe they should work on and there is a lot of time when you work one-on-one where you are dependent on the salary, you are dependent on the player so you cannot be too honest. In football or basketball you have so much power because the players are replaceable. But in tennis we cannot replace the player. Now, working with adidas if they don’t live up to their expectations that the brand feels they should live up to then we can actually replace them. So we have a lot more power. And they feel that also. Obviously they like it because there’s a lot less emotion attached to it. It’s much more direct. The people we have in the group are recognized coaches and experienced so they will value our advice much more in this way. We can be a lot more direct. From my perspective, and I worked with a federation before where you do have power, this is more unique because you work for a sponsor. And the sponsor invests in a player and so you really have to make sure the performance comes out of the player because then the investment is paying dividends. And it’s part of the appeal of the adidas brand. The players say “We want to work with this brand because it gives us not only the shoes and clothes and the money, but it gives us the support to maximize my potential.”

Tennis Week: All of the players you have worked with through the adidas team from Verdasco to Cirstea have had some of very good results and in some cases their best-ever Grand Slam results. When you started spending time working with Wozniacki did you see the potential for these results from Wozniacki?

Sven Groeneveld: When we stopped working with Ana (Ivanovic) our focus really went to Caroline. Because of the potential because of recognizing her talent. We said “If she would like to be part of the program then we would like to invest that time in her.” Same with Sorana (Cirstea) actually. She was really struggling at the start of the year. We started to pay a little more attention to her development and around the hard-court season, Indian Wells, we started spending more and more time with her. We recognized she had the talent but needed to work on some areas that she hadn’t worked on and she’s done really well since that period. She really developed well. We identify the players and obviously we get guidance from adidas and from Jim Latham at adidas sports marketing because obviously he looks at it from also a marketing perspective: which player can make a difference in selling the brand.

Tennis Week: Sure, like Verdasco in Australia. People saw he’s an exciting player, he’s a good looking guy and that’s huge for the brand because he represented it so well.

Sven Groeneveld: Exactly. That’s huge. So that is very important for the brand. So every time we get that email “Can you look at this player?” Obviously, every player we work with we treat as equal, but we do get guidance from the sports marketing division to maybe spend a little extra time with one or the other and try to focus on their development and see where they’re at.

Tennis Week: Do they ever come to you and say “Sven, we’re thinking of signing this player what do you think?”

Sven Groeneveld: We will try to give some guidance and they might ask us for some advice. Here at the US Open for the juniors there are not a lot of people from the brand so we will keep an eye on the juniors and watch the players who are coming up.

Tennis Week: When Ana came to New York during the spring to play Madison Square Garden she really seemed like she missed you and she basically in a nice way said it wasn’t the same for her without you as coach. It seemed like for her she really missed that interaction and obviously the success you two had together. Obviously, it has to come from the player but what is the future with you and Ana?

Sven Groeneveld: Well you build up a relationship and a way of working when you spend time with a player. I’ve worked with Mary Pierce on four different occasions. I worked with Rusedski on two different occasions…

Tennis Week: And Ana knows the results were there when you two worked together.

Sven Groeneveld: She knows the results were there and you feel comfortable working with someone. The way I work and also within the team she likes that structure. We started again at Wimbledon and after this tournament we obviously have to sit down and make a new plan. She likes us to be part of that roadmap and we’re trying to maximize that potential that she has. But we’ll be very honest and hopefully get to the point again where Ana gets the results she desires and adidas would like to see.

Tennis Week: Is it a challenge for you when you’ve coached a player, they go to another coach, you get them back again. Do you have to break them of habits they may have developed with another coach?

Sven Groeneveld:You definitely go back to the basics and they know that’s where it all stems from. Sometimes they lose their way. I see myself as a GPS console. Basically they tell you where they want to go. I recognize where they are and if we recognize where they are it’s much easier then to make a path to where they want to go. But if you cannot even recognize where they are then that’s a problem. That’s where I feel I spend a lot of time identifying: “Where are you? Where is your state of mind?Where are you physically, technically, tactically? Where are you?” If you can identify where they are, in all aspects, then you can formulate what road they have to take to get to that goal. Because if you are making an identification and you make a false identification then you might take a road that leads to nowhere. So that is how I see what we do. We try to give the guidance, but they have to drive. We’re trying to direct them.


Tennis Week: What is your strength as a coach? Is it technical? Is it tactical? What you said just now basically tells me you are a good listener and a good observer in that you are trying to make a true identification or diagnosis before you start the coaching process?

Sven Groeneveld: Identifying where they are at and identifying their strengths and weaknesses and formulating a plan that maximizes their strengths and improves their weaknesses. The physical training I’ve always left to the specialists. And that’s something I’ve learned: I won’t touch anything I am not a specialist in. I am a tennis specialist meaning on court, technical or tactical that I can see myself as a specialist. Physical training I will get the best out there for the player. I like to delegate that responsibility and I feel that is also one of my strengths: I will not take on something that I cannot do.

Tennis Week: What you are doing now is a bit revolutionary in that you are taking a team approach to an individual sport whereas in the past it was quite often one individual coach working with one individual player. How did you develop that philosophy?

Sven Groeneveld: I always had that philosophy. When I was in the Swiss Federation my goal was to help make the player responsible for their own actions and accountable for their actions. At one stage, as a coach, you almost have to be able to step back. It’s nice that Roger can actually have such an incredible performance also without guidance. Because he has taken the responsibility for himself. So it’s always been part of what I believe: that we as coaches have a responsibility to help the players be able to do it that way. Now that maybe Ana says ‘I want to go back to this’ there is a certain dependence then I also have to be careful because that is not what I am supposed to be doing. I don’t want to set a dependence. I want to empower her. And maybe that’s what she feels also that I empowered her. I don’t know. I cannot answer that for her. But that’s what my role is: I try to empower the player that I work with.

Tennis Week: When you look at the US Open women’s draw, particularly the top half, and see the young women like Wozniacki and Wickmayer and Oudin who are athletic, who can move well, who can do some different things with the ball does this say something about the future direction of the women’s game or is it a case of you can’t read too much into one result at one tournament?

Sven Groeneveld: I think it’s developing over the last two years. I recognize that the game of tennis had lost some players from the top 10 with Justine and Hingis and Clijsters and Davenport, who came briefly back, but we recognize she is still a top player if she was still playing. We lost a big group of the top 10. So new generation is coming in with a lot of responsibility as all of a sudden a top 10 player, a top 5 player or even a number one. And in the past that process has been a little bit more difficult at times. Now, there is a change coming. There is a changing of the guard, so to speak, and yes the athletic ability of the players are starting to play a big role in that. Staying healthy is vital. The Tour has changed the format, the schedule slightly. The top players have to really be on their game and play because they get punished or fined if they don’t play in the mandatory tournaments. So there is a lot of different aspects to the game now and I think the women’s game is in a little bit of a state of growth. Some people see it as a state of weakness, but I think it is in a state of growth. I think we will get to a point where it is going to stand out again because there is a lot of young talent out there and of course you have the veteran players and the returning players like Kim Clijsters that really represents the game really well. It’s shifting at the moment and that’s why you have these surprise losses that take place. It’s also because the sport is in a state of growth and has developed some depth.

Tennis Week:Last question: you worked with Roger Federer when he was a junior. Did you envision him having the potential to become what he has become back then?

Sven Groeneveld: No. I would like to tell you I did. We always recognized his talent and his ability but we could never imagine him achieving what he has achieved and being one of the greatest, or maybe the greatest, player ever. I mean you recognize his ability, his presence and his on-court strength when he was playing back then, but there were also a lot of weaknesses at that time. But he has been able to to adjust and to learn and to grow. Individually, he is a unique person. But to see him where he is no, I mean it is unbelievable.

Tennis Week: Do you think we will ever see coaching permitted at majors?

Sven Groeneveld: I would be against it. I think tennis is an individual sport and it’s always been that way. On the WTA Tour it’s good because the Tour is also a form of entertainment tennis. On this level, at majors, I think it is the tradition and that’s what makes it so big. The tradition is important to the game of tennis. I like to let the player have the spotlight and figure out solutions on court. Let this (the Grand Slam stage) be the place where the player shines and not the coach. I would not be for it, but if it would happen I think the coaches will be ready for it.

Tennis Week: When you are called out on court by a player do you ever feel pressure?

Sven Groeneveld: No, actually I don’t. I feel very privileged to be able to go out on court and to try to help the player at the time. It is quite unique. It is not about me, it’s about the player. Yes, it’s nice for me to be able to offer advice and tactics, but I think the player should be the one who has the spotlight and it’s all about the player.
http://blog.tennisweek.com/?p=666
 
#752 ·
When he says this:

She likes us to be part of that roadmap and we’re trying to maximize that potential that she has. But we’ll be very honest and hopefully get to the point again where Ana gets the results she desires and adidas would like to see.
Doesn't it seem like they don't really believe in her anymore? I don't know.. that's always the impression I get lately, and I think it gets to Ana.. she has no belief. None.
 
#753 ·
When he says this:



Doesn't it seem like they don't really believe in her anymore? I don't know.. that's always the impression I get lately, and I think it gets to Ana.. she has no belief. None.
I read it like this : `Some day in a distant future Ana will maybe become the player she was .Now she sucks we know that ,that`s why we don`t have many hopes in her or the time and will to help her `

Adidas team :ras::ras::ras:
:smash:
 
#755 ·
The Tennis Magazine feature is finally available on-line:

Ana Agonistes

She was supposed to be the fresh and happy new face of women's tennis, but 2009 has been a struggle for Ana Ivanovic. Do we want her to be something she isn't?

By Stephen Tignor

Wimbledon’s Court 4 is centrally located and always heavily trafficked, but late on the first Tuesday of this year’s tournament it had burst at the seams. Fans sat shoulder to shoulder on the stone bleachers that rise to the right. They stood four deep behind the wooden benches to the left. Latecomers strained on tiptoes to grab whatever tiny view they could. The overflow of humanity flooded out onto the surrounding grounds. Like well-mannered tennis observers everywhere, most of those who could see the action clapped enthusiastically for high-quality shots and simmered down into a tense hush before crucial points. Others, packs of young men mostly, let out long whistles after each rally.

Young and old, polite and rude, scruffy lads and decorous ladies, all of them had gathered for a chance at a close-up view of Ana Ivanovic. Normally ensconced within the game’s glamorous, big-ticket arenas, the former No. 1 had seen her star dim just enough in 2009 to make her available to the sidecourt masses. The atmosphere, as it had been at many of her matches this year, was double-edged. On the one hand, there was a current of voyeuristic electricity humming through the crowd—the low, late sun put an extra shimmer on Ivanovic’s long dark hair, her immaculate white tennis dress, and her deeply tanned skin. On the other hand, there was a panicky sense of impending disaster, as if the Serb were wobbling on a 50-foot-high tightrope rather than playing tennis.

The spectators’ fear was understandable. This should have been a routine first-round match against 58th-ranked Lucie Hradecka, yet it was tied at 6-all in the third set. Ivanovic’s service tosses sailed waywardly—on one point the ball was too far back, on the next it was too far forward. Her ground strokes were equally capricious. After thumping a perfectly measured backhand winner into the corner, she took the same swing a minute later only to see the ball smack against her racquet frame and shoot straight up into the air. Between points, Ivanovic slapped her thigh in self-punishment and made searching, fearful eye contact with her family in the stands. Her fist pumps had an air of desperation.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Court 4, which rests on the razor-thin border between show-court stardom and sidecourt oblivion, isn’t where most of us thought the 21-year-old Ivanovic would be spending her time in 2009. This was a player who had made an impact on tour at age 17 with her smoothly muscular baseline game, and had patiently climbed the ranks from there. Over the next four years, Ivanovic had slimmed down, ironed out the inconsistencies that came with her long limbs and low-margin strokes, and learned to make the most of her ballstriking skills, which remain among the most effortlessly lethal in women’s tennis.

Still, the question remained: Did the warm and ever-smiling Serb, apparently without a mean bone in her body, have the will to compete with the overtly determined women—Maria Sharapova, Venus and Serena Williams, Justine Henin—at the top? You can’t blame the WTA tour for hoping so. New blood on the women’s side has been hard to fi nd in recent years. Of the scores of hopefuls who have made their debuts this decade, only one, Sharapova, has turned out to be a star with staying power.

In the first half of 2008, Ivanovic didn’t prove that she was a killer, exactly; that’s pretty much the last word that comes to mind when you listen to her chatter exuberantly through a press conference. But working with coach Sven Groeneveld for most of ’08, she proved that she’s conscientious and ambitious enough to grasp for Grand Slams, rather than being satisfied with celebrity status and an enviable bank account. In February ’08, Ivanovic reached the Australian Open final; four months later, she won her first major, the French Open, to become No. 1. Women’s tennis seemed, finally, to have produced a fresh and marketable face for the future.

Alas, Ivanovic would fight a thumb injury during the summer of 2008 and win just one more tournament that year. The new season brought little new hope, as she failed to win an event through the first seven months of 2009. As she had on Court 4 at Wimbledon, she looked less like a champion of the future and more like someone just trying to keep it together out there.

So which is she? Was Ivanovic ever destined to dominate? Anyone looking for clues probably won’t find them by talking to her. When I interviewed Ivanovic this spring in Indian Wells, she was as straightforward and upbeat as ever, her face a brick wall of sincere good cheer. “Hi, I’m Ana,” she said with a smile as she shook my hand. That may not sound noteworthy, aside from the fact that the pro tennis player’s standard method for greeting a member of the press is a silent and slightly grudging nod.

Not so for Ivanovic, who leans into questions with grinning enthusiasm. She’s happiest when she’s detailing her wide variety of loves. She loves the United States, where “the people are so nice.” She loves the California desert, because “you can have time for yourself.” She loves crooners like David Gray and John Mayer—“I’m romantic,” she says with a laugh. At different times Ivanovic has also expressed her love for backgammon, Sudoku, roller coasters, the teachings of the Dalai Lama, and tennis practice.

Ivanovic’s affections extended even to the room where we were sitting, an empty players’ lounge cluttered with video-game consoles and sandwich wrappers. “It’s so quiet here, I love it,” she said in a half-whisper. For a chatty person, Ivanovic talks a lot about the pleasures of solitude.

“Sometimes I wish I could get away from everything and go somewhere where nobody knows me,” she says. Ivanovic laughs as these words leave her mouth; it’s not a melancholy concept to her. Being alone seems less an escape than just another way for her to enjoy herself, not all that different from running around a tennis court. In that sense, the sport fits her. It’s made for that weird paradox, the outgoing loner.

“I know I can’t just disappear,” Ivanovic adds, even though getting away from tennis has crossed her mind more than once over the past year. She also says that she has been conflicted at times on court. “I would ask myself, Should I play aggressive”—“aggresseev” is how it sounds in her accented English—“or hit with spin? After a point, I would think, What should I have played? I’d hit one ball one way and the second one differently.”

To help counter this indecisiveness, Ivanovic hired Martina Navratilova’s former coach, Craig Kardon, in February. The combination seemed to be a winning one after Ivanovic reached her first final of 2009 in Indian Wells.

Still, to get there she fought through long spells of tentative play, and her results soon went south again. Ivanovic failed to reach the quarterfinals in each of her next five events. Hardest of all may have been her 6-2, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round at Roland Garros. Azarenka, then a teenager, beat the defending champion routinely and without seeming to harbor any doubts about her superiority. Ivanovic dropped out of the Top 10 and split with Kardon after the tournament.

“The second year after you’ve made a big jump can be tough,” Kardon says. “She put pressure on herself after she became No. 1.”

Kardon believes that Ivanovic can win Slams again, but to do that “she needs a plan to deal with her emotions during matches,” he says, adding that Ivanovic had been through some “turmoil” in 2009, and that she may have felt the need this spring to turn everything around as soon as, or sooner than, humanly possible.

Her 2008 success had brought with it a triple whammy of distractions: sharper scrutiny, heightened expectations, and increased demands on her time. By June, they had produced a crack in Ivanovic’s toothy veneer. “There’s really not much friendship between the girls on tour,” Ivanovic told London’s Mail On Sunday before Wimbledon. “There’s so much rivalry and jealousy, everyone just hangs out in their own camp. In the locker room, you can feel the jealousy.” As for her celebrated looks, they seemed as much a curse as a blessing. “No girl likes to be compared to another,” Ivanovic said. “I feel flattered that people like the way I look, but it doesn’t help you win points. I think the reason there’s less rivalry and more friendship on the men’s tour is because they don’t deal with this element.” A month later, Ivanovic was the subject of a Vogue profile entitled “Ace Interrupted,” accompanied by a moody shot of her on a boardwalk in France, and she was hounded by paparazzi in Scotland while she watched her boyfriend, Australian golfer Adam Scott, play the British Open.

But for all of those outside pressures, it’s the ones from within that Ivanovic feels the most, according to the people who have worked with her.

“The thing that makes Ana easy to coach,” Kardon says, “is that she wants it very badly and pushes herself.”

“She can be a bit of a perfectionist,” says Darren Cahill, a former coach of Andre Agassi who was working with Ivanovic over the summer. Like Kardon, Cahill maintains that with Ivanovic, what you see is what you get. “Ana really is a thoroughly nice person, with a big heart and an innocent intelligence,” he says. “You can say the simplest advice and she’ll look at you wide-eyed, like it’s a revelation. She knows how to make a coach feel good.”

Can Cahill, along with Groeneveld, who rejoined the Serb’s camp this summer, provide any revelations that will help her find her best form again? “Her serve is an issue,” Cahill says. “There’s a technical problem with her toss that she’s been working extremely hard to fix.” The serve, of course, isn’t just another shot. “If you can’t control that,” Cahill says, “it affects your sense of control over your whole game.”

Longtime observers might add that Ivanovic’s style revolves around low-percentage strokes that can easily misfire, and that she doesn’t have the raw speed of Venus Williams or the smooth footwork of her fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic. But whatever her obstacles, we can root for her to overcome them; few would argue that tennis isn’t better off with Ana Ivanovic winning. When she’s clicking with those smooth, aggresseev ground strokes and bubbling over in a victory speech, she makes the sport look good, like fun, like something to love.
http://www.tennis.com/features/general/features.aspx?id=187276
 
#758 ·
It was a good article, but articles like this only serve to remind me what could have been and what has happened instead. :sad:
 
#763 ·
Quality article there, pretty much sums everything up. And that Hradecka match...Ana played terribly, but I would much rather have the Ana of then than what we have now. At least she fought hard to grind out the win, and now it's just nothing - she's losing the moment she steps on the court. :sad:
 
#764 ·
The difference is.. she still wanted to play back then.. she had the desire.. you could see how she wanted to play Wimbledon. Now it's like there isn't any motivation.. she doesn't have it in her, and the people around her are being incapable of making her see ways of getting motivated. She already has no belief, so she walks on court defeated.

Also.. in the Hradecka match she was able to keep her cool when she had to save the MPs. Which hasn't happened since.. she was a complete basket of nerves at the USO tie break against Bondarenko. If she had kept her cool, she could have done better there I'm sure.

As Kardon says in the article, Ana needs a plan of how to deal with her emotions on court, it has been out of her control. And also how to keep concentrated.
 
#765 ·
Did anybody see this? Ana is now refusing to talk to the press. The translation is not the greatest but her is a rough translation from google.

Ana withdrew underground!
Ivanovic is, after a new failure in Tokyo, completely withdrew from public life and refused to give statements to the media! Serbian tennis player would not even speak the official site for the tournament, even though it was required

Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic withdrew the "underground" after the elimination in the first round of Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and decided to hold a certain amount of time beyond the world media, the Press has learned!

Ivanovic, who because of numerous injuries in 2009. zapaženiji year did not result, and remains committed with the intention to return to the top of world tennis, but at this point, it is estimated that above all needs peace.

The fact that Ana decided that for some time tend to the curious eyes of the public testimony and the fact that did not want to give statements to the media after the defeat of Lucy Safari in the first round of the WTA tournament in Japan, which otherwise is not usual for our tennis player. Although in the past year certainly had a more serious moments of eliminating the Pan Pacific Open, Ivanovic has never avoided "seventh force" and for any embarrassing questions about the career or private life, but this time not a single world agency reported comment Serbian tennis player, but only a statement of its rivals. Moreover, Aninih statement was not on her official Web site.

The hardest moments in his career

Ivanovic, as Press has learned, is currently in peace ready for performance at the tournament in Beijing, which could be her last in this season, and then a good rest and prepare for a new assault on the title in 2010. year.

- Ana survives toughest moments in his career so far, which she does not try to hide, but this time decided to take a little inclined to the curious public, and try to be at peace with the election problems. She never ran from the media, but at the moment can not afford to spend energy on things other than tennis - explains the source Press.

On the other hand, a source that is also very close to Ana Ivanovic pointed out that in public too often the case dramatizuje our tennis player, podsećajući that it is neither the first nor the last sportistkinja career during which faced similar problems at the end of it all came out as winners .

And Serena fell, and returned

- Ana is young, only 22 years, but many forget that during this season had many problems with injuries. She does not think about some kind of withdrawal, but how to return to the top of world tennis, where she belong. Similarly, Williams and Sereno, who once suffered a lot of drastic decline in the WTA list by Ana, and still managed to return and win more titles grend-slem - Press says a source close to the former best teniserki world.


Troubling is the shoulder, but not to make a break

One of the biggest problems that Ana Ivanovic in recent months certainly face a shoulder injury, because that is our tennis player was literally forced to change the technique of serving. Most tennis players and teniserki who in the past found themselves in a similar situation is generally break the rules until the injury does not fully repair, but Ivanovic obviously could not allow himself the luxury of a number of obligations to the organization and WTA scheduled performances in tournaments. It is known, however, the case of the legendary John Mekinroa, who was once the back injury also had to radically change the way he played.

Selector our Fed Cup team Dejan Vranes says our list to change the Ane service only temporary and that things will come to your place when Ivanovic to be fully recovered.

- Ana, as you noted, only exchanged momentum, while problems with bolt Already date. When served on whole life one way, then half of the season that have changed, it is normal to achieve slightly weaker results. When Anne was the change only temporary, while not fully recover, and then use an old technique - the Press says Vranes.
http://www.pressonline.rs/page/stories/sr.html?id=81394&sectionId=44&view=story
 
#769 ·
It all seems a bit contradicting to me. If she needs peace to fully dedicate herself to tennis, then it should mean she is interested in winning and in playing well, determined to do something still this season. The match showed a completely different story.. Ana seemed uninterested, unfocused, not determined.. she basically gave up once the second set got to a tie break, it was even funny.

Well.. I guess what really means is that she is conflicted and messed up mentally and doesn't want to be commenting on it.

She did an autograph session today in Tokyo, which I found a bit odd.
 
Top