Biography Ana Ivanovic is a well-known tennis player from Serbia. She is a hard working professional and her dedication towards tennis helped her earn much fame and popularity so early in life, she currently ranked world no. 2 and is a top ranked Serbian player.
Ana Ivanovic was born on 6 November 1987, Belgrade, Serbia (then Yugoslavia) and is the eldest sibling to parents Mirosla, a self employed businessman and mother Dragana, a layer, and has a younger brother Miloš. Besides playing tennis, Ana love watching movies, shopping and playing sodoku an, she is enrolled at a university in Belgrade to study finance, and learns Spanish in her spare time. She gathered inspiration from Monica Seles, also a Serbain player, and started playing tennis at the age of five.
On court, she throws array of shots and is known as an offensive baseliner who gathers point by hitting balls from the back of the court. She relies on the power, depth, and placement of her forehand strokes, and her quality of play varies from match to match.
Career in Tennis
Ivanovic started to play at the age of 5 being inspired by watching games played by Monica Seles at Roland Garros on television. As she began her training, she suffered a hard time due to NATO bombing in 1999, she has to go for early morning practice session to avoid bombing and in winter, she was trained in abandoned swimming pool due to lack of training facility.
Ana Ivanovic came to limelight when she reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament in 2004, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. Her presence as a tough competitor pronounced more in October at the Zürich Open in Zürich, Switzerland when she took Venus Williams to two tie breaks before losing 7–6(11), 7–6(6) in the second round.
In the beginning of 2005, she won her first career single title as a qualifier at Canberra, Australia. She defeated top 10 ranked players like Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova, and Vera Zvonareva, and saw significant improvement in her ranking. She then played Australian Open in Doha and Key Biscayne, Florida and in both matches; she lost to Amelie Mauresmo and finish the year ranking in 16th position.
Though she could not catch up prestigious titles in 2006, the year proved to be a rollercoaster of success and defeat for Ana Ivanovic and she stood as a big challenge for many pro tennis stars in many matches. The year started off playing Hopman Cup with compatriot Novak Djokovic but unfortunately they missed the final. In WTA tour, she played at the Medibank International in Sydney and defeated Amelie Mauresmo but eliminated by Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. She participated in Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, and defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6–3 6–3 before lost to Elena Dementieva in three sets. Besides other events, she moved up to 16th round at the Wimbledon, but lost to eventual champion Amelie Mauresmo, 6–3 6–4. Ivanovic saw another big career achievement when she defeated former world number one champ Martina Hingis in the final of the Canada Masters in Montreal, 6–2, 6–3 but at the U.S. Open, she lost to Serena Williams. In 2006, she played 9 double tournaments teaming with Maria Kirilenko and Sania Mirza including two semifinals and a final with Maria Kirilenko. She finished off the year ranking in 14th position in singles and 51 in doubles.
2007 started off with two quarterfinals defeat at the Mondial Hardcourts in Gold Coast, Australia, against Shahar Pe'er 5–7, 6–4, 6–4 and at the Sydney Medibank International against Nicole Vaidisova 6–4, 6–2. Then at the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, she lost to Hingis in the final 6–4, 6–2.Her first success of the season was her first clay court title at the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin and this win has pulled up her WTA ranking positioning her at world no. 8. Ivanovic went on to play French Open at Roland Garros and en route defeated Kuznetsova (#3) 6–0, 3–6, 6–1 in quarterfinal, Sharapova (#2) in the semifinals 6–2, 6–1 but sadly dismissed by defending champion Justine Henin in the final (6–1, 6–2.) She again reached up to the semifinal of Wimbledon and defeated Vaidisova 4–6, 6–2, 7–5 in the quarterfinal but untimately shwn the way out of the court by three-time former Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the final.
Ivanovic sustained a knee injury during Wimbledon session, due to pestering pain she remained out of the court and withdrew herself from matches like Serbian Fed Cup with Slovakia and two lead up events to the U.S. Open. She returned to claim her fourthsingle career title at East West Bank Classic in Carson, California defeating Petrova 4–6, 6–3, 7–5 in the final, with this win she was in her career high ranking of world no. 4.
She soon catches up her fifth career title playing against Hantuchova in the final, she won this match by 6–3, 3–0 and qualified for WTA Tour Championships. At the end of the year, she played the WTA Tour Championships in Madrid, Spain, defeated World No. 2 Kuznetsova and Hantuchova but lost to Sharapova in the final round and secured her world no. 4 ranking.
In 2008, Ivanovic started the year with playing in an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, and lost the game to Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals 6–4, 1–6, 6–3. She then went on to participate in Tier II Medibank International in Sydney, where 12 out of top 15 ranked women were competing, she reached up to semifinal but defeated by Justin Henin 6–2, 2–6, 6–4. At the Australina Open, she defeated Venus William in the quarterfinal for the first time in her career and won the match by 7–6, 6–4, defeated Daniela Hantuchova in semifinal 0–6, 6–3, 6–4 to reach her second career Grand Slam final but eventually lost to Maria Sharapova 7–5, 6–3 in the final, this brilliant performance propelled her ranking from world no. 4 to world no. 2.
In March 2008, she was seen on court of Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California and defeated Jankovic in the semifinals 7–6(3), 6–3 and then beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. Then she participated at the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, where she was defeated by Lindsay Davenport in the third round in straight sets.
Ivanovic was endorsed by Nike at the beginning of her professional career, but now she is in contract with Adidas and wears Adidas shoe and apparel, and is using Yonex RQiS Tour 1 racquet.
