Ana Ivanovic

Biography

Ana Ivanovic (born 6 November 1987) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 12 weeks. Ivanovic won 15 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including a major at the 2008 French Open. She was also the runner-up at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open. Ivanovic qualified for the year-end WTA Finals three times, and won the year-end WTA Tournament of Champions twice, in 2010 and 2011. Ivanovic made her WTA Tour debut in 2004. By the age of 18, she had already defeated established players such as Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova, Vera Zvonareva and Amélie Mauresmo. At age 20, she achieved her career highlight by winning the 2008 French Open—becoming world No. 1 in the process. After her triumph, she struggled to maintain her newfound success, not reaching the quarterfinals of a major in her subsequent 17 appearances, and dropping as low as No. 65 in the rankings in July 2010. In 2012, Ivanovic resurged by reaching the US Open quarterfinals, and finishing the year inside the top 15. In 2014, she returned to the top of the game—winning four titles, qualifying for the WTA Finals, and was the year-end world No. 5. She continued this success in 2015 by reaching her first major semifinal in seven years at the French Open. In December 2016, Ivanovic announced her retirement from the sport. Ivanovic was known for her aggressive style of play and impressive forehand, which was described by Nadia Petrova as "the best out there." She earned over $15.5 million in prize money. In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time and was also included on the list of "Top 100 Greatest Players Ever" (male and female combined) by reporter Matthew Cronin.

== Early life == Ivanovic (Ана Ивановић / Ana Ivanović, pronounced [âna ǐʋanoʋitɕ, ǎː-] ) was born in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia. Her mother, Dragana, a lawyer, has been court-side during most of her matches. Her father Miroslav, a self-employed businessman, attended as many events as he possibly could. Ivanovic has a younger brother, Miloš, with whom she loved to play basketball. Ivanovic began playing tennis at the age of five after watching Monica Seles, a fellow Yugoslav, on television. She started her career after memorizing the telephone number of a local tennis clinic from an advertisement. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, she was forced to train during the morning to avoid bombardments. She trained in an abandoned swimming pool in the winter, as no tennis facilities were available. At 13 she moved to Basel, Switzerland due to the better training facilities and coaching available. Manager Dan Holzmann was living in Basel, and Ana and her mother moved to Switzerland when she signed an agreement with the Swiss entrepreneur. When she was 15, Ivanovic spent four hours in a locker room crying after a defeat – the first that her new manager had witnessed. She thought that Dan Holzmann would abandon her, thinking she wouldn't be good enough to become a professional tennis player. However, he remained her manager throughout her career.

== Career ==

=== 2004: Rising star === Ivanovic reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. In 2004, she went 26–0 on the ITF Women's Circuit, and won all five events that she entered, two of them as a qualifier. As a qualifier in Zurich, she overcame a 5–1 third-set deficit along with two match points to defeat world No. 29 Tatiana Golovin. She then debuted in the qualifying draw of a major at the US Open, where she was defeated by Lioudmila Skavronskaia after winning the first set 6–1 and having two match points in the third set. Her first notable breakthrough occurred in the next tournament, when she took Venus Williams to two tiebreaks, before losing in straight sets in the second round of the Zurich Open. She had held several set points in both sets. She followed up her run in Zurich with a quarterfinal showing at Luxembourg the next week.

=== 2005: First WTA title === As a qualifier, Ivanovic won her first career singles title early in the year at the Canberra International, after defeating Melinda Czink in the final. Her ranking continued to rise after wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova in Miami, Nadia Petrova also in Miami, and Vera Zvonareva in Warsaw, all of whom were top-10 players. Ivanovic lost to Amélie Mauresmo at the Australian Open in the third round, at Doha in the third round after holding a 6–2, 2–0 lead, and at the Miami Masters in the quarterfinals. However, Ivanovic's biggest win to date then came over Mauresmo in the third round of the French Open. She advanced to the quarterfinals of only her second Grand Slam tournament by defeating Francesca Schiavone in the fourth round. Later in the year, Ivanovic reached the semifinals of the Zurich Open and Generali Ladies Linz, losing to Patty Schnyder in both tournaments. She finished the year ranked No. 16.

=== 2006: Breakthrough ===

Ivanovic started the season at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Western Australia with fellow Serbian Novak Djokovic, where the pair narrowly missed the final. To start off her WTA year, she played at the Medibank International in Sydney where she once again defeated Amélie Mauresmo, this time in straight sets, before falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. A week later, she lost to Samantha Stosur in the second round of the Australian Open. Ivanovic made it to the third round of the French Open, before losing to Anastasia Myskina. She progressed to the fourth round at Wimbledon, but lost to eventual champion and world No. 1, Amélie Mauresmo, in straight sets after beating No. 14 seed, Dinara Safina. Ivanovic made her breakthrough in August by defeating a formerly ranked No. 1, Martina Hingis, in the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal adter beating Jelena Janković, No. 14 seed Katarina Srebotnik and top-10 player Dinara Safina en route to the championship match. This ultimately led to her winning the United States Open Series, ahead of Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova. At the US Open, she lost to Serena Williams. Ivanovic also played nine tournaments in doubles in 2006, teaming up with Maria Kirilenko and Sania Mirza. Ivanovic and Kirilenko made two semifinals and a final; they ended the year at No. 17 in the annual race to the Championships. Ivanovic finished the year ranked world No. 14 in singles and No. 51 in doubles.

=== 2007: First Grand Slam final and entering the top 10 === Ivanovic started the season in Gold Coast and Sydney where she reached quarterfinals. Seeded 13th at the Australian Open, Ivanovic defeated Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round, but lost in the third round to Vera Zvonareva. Immediately after this tournament, she announced that she had split with her coach David Taylor. She then played in the Toray Pan Pacific Open. In the quarterfinals she beat No. 10 Janković, and in the semifinals the No. 1, when Maria Sharapova was forced to retire after Ivanovic had won the first set; but she lost in the final to Martina Hingis. During the American hard-court season, Ivanovic lost in early rounds. But on clay, she first went on to semifinal of Amelia Island and then managed to win her first Tier-I clay-court title in Berlin, defeating No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final in three sets. Ivanovic needed a tiebreak to finally finish the match. The win in Berlin propelled her into the top ten of the WTA rankings for the first time, at world No. 8. Ivanovic had a six-match winning streak heading into the French Open and increased this streak to twelve by reaching the final. She won her first three matches with the loss of only nine games. In her second career quarterfinal at the French Open, Ivanovic defeated world No. 3 Kuznetsova, and she then beat world No. 2, Sharapova, in less than one hour in the semifinals. In the final, Ivanovic attempted to win her first major singles title and complete a sweep of the top three players in the world. However, world No. 1 and two-time defending champion Justine Henin won the match in straight sets.