Advantage AnaThe sweet yet hard-hitting Ana Ivanovic is fast becoming the darling of world tennis, but a first Grand Slam has proved out of reach—but for how long?
If you’re not yet familiar with the formidable talent and charm of tennis star Ana Ivanovic, you probably will be soon. The 20-year-old Serb has burst onto the international scene in the past couple of years, and now sits pretty on the world ranking at number 2. Her captivating good looks and engaging personality will doubtlessly propel her further to stardom—she’s already been voted the 23rd Sexiest Woman in the World in FHM’s annual poll, ahead of fellow tennis pin-ups Maria Sharapova and Anna Kournikova—but it’s her raw tennis ability that will really be the making of her. From her childhood days of idolising Monica Seles, to the finals of Grand Slam tournaments today, Ana Ivanovic looks set to be a legend in the making.
The world of women’s tennis is littered with pushy parents and pressure. Some of today’s female players were destined to become tennis professionals—their parents had decided it was so before they were even born. Most of us would find this ‘nurture over nature’ approach rather distasteful. Which makes the Ana Ivanovic story all the more appealing.
Ana first picked up a racket at the age of five after being inspired by watching fellow Serb Monica Seles on television. Soon afterward she saw an advert for a local tennis clinic. She memorised the number and pestered her parents into paying for lessons. Throw into the mix that her days as a junior tennis player were spent in war-torn Belgrade and that she used to practice in an empty abandoned swimming pool and it’s clear to see that this was no ordinary rise to the top.
Until recently though, the burgeoning talents of Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova have been somewhat overshadowed by the extremely gifted Justine Henin. But with the Belgian announcing her surprise retirement in May at the tender age of 25, the door is open for big new rivalries to begin among a clutch of brilliantly talented Eastern Europeans, with Ivanovic and Sharapova leading the queue to become established as World No. 1.  |
Already hugely popular in the tennis world, Ivanovic would be most people’s pick as the girl they’d love to see dominate women’s tennis for the foreseeable future. Expect to hear Ana’s enthusiastic shouts of “ajde!” (Serbian for “come on!”) becoming a fixture when you watch tennis from now on.
Maybe the reason Ana is such a likeable figure is because her parents were the antithesis of the pushy stereotype. They gave up so much of their time for their daughter once her love for the game became clear. Mum Dragana attends all of Ana’s matches, while father Miroslav and brother Miloš are there to cheer her on whenever they can. Ana has never lost sight of the importance of their role. “My parents always gave me incredible support and I am so grateful to them,” she says. “My mum made a great sacrifice for me. She knew the tennis world can be a difficult place, and so it’s important that you have someone close to you when you are young. I owe her a lot.”
Ana has needed plenty of support on the path to becoming one of the world’s best, and her unconventional professional relationship with her manager Dan Holzmann has been another big factor in her rise to the upper echelons of the game.
Holzmann, a Swiss businessman with a background in a nutritional supplement company, first met Ana when she was 14 and he was immediately struck by her dedication and friendly manner. “I asked Ana what she wanted from life,” Holzmann recalls of their first meeting. “She looked me in the eye and replied, ‘I want to be No. 1 in the world.’ I was smitten at that moment. I took a quick decision that I would help her reach her goal.” And that help came in the form of financial assistance for coaching and travel expenses to the tune of around $500,000. He remembers the emotional scenes when he first came to watch Ana at a tournament. “She lost in the first round and she was crying. She didn’t come out of the changing room for four hours; she thought I was going to end our agreement.
Holzmann was right to believe in his young protégé, for she has emerged into everything he had hoped she would be. An offensive baseliner, she possesses power and placement in abundance, hitting many winners through penetrating, flat shots that leave her opponent’s flapping. She has reached two Grand Slam finals in the past year, at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open, as well as the semifinals of last year’s Wimbledon—results that Ana attributes to preparation and the ongoing process of learning to deal with big-match nerves.
“Good preparation is important,” she insists. “I always think about how my opponent will play, and talk to my coaches about how I should approach it. And it’s also very important to be completely focused, so you can think about your tactics during the match.” And when it comes to dealing with the tension, she’s still learning. Nerves very obviously affected her in last year’s French Open final against Henin. She broke the three-time champion’s serve in the first set and was 40-0 up in the second when panic consumed her. But as she says, it’s all a learning process: “It just hit me where I was in that single moment as I tossed the ball up to serve. The more I thought about it the more I panicked. You just don’t know if it will happen again, but I will definitely know how to deal with it better,” she says.
And she talks such a good game now that you hope she’ll never crumble like that again. “You have to think only about your tactics, and not about the score or your opponent, or what will happen in the tournament if you win the match. So, for example, think, ‘Am I moving my feet the way I should be?’ and ‘Where do I want to serve to?’” she says. “I sometimes play Sudoku before a match because that focuses my mind.”  |
Lessons are being learned all the time, but drastic changes to her game have never been necessary; it’s more the confidence that comes from beating the top players that gives her game that all-important added lift. Still, she’s striving for perfection, as all great champions must. But learning to roll with the punches has played a big part in her development—she’s even gaining a reputation as someone who can come back from seemingly impossible positions. “Obviously if you’re not playing very well your confidence won’t be so high, so it’s probably best not to take too many risks. But if you focus on what you have to do, you can sometimes improve very quickly in a match. I find it quite easy to motivate myself because I love being on the court.”
And the tennis world loves her being there too. Already a tremendously popular figure, her contemporaries have only nice things to say about her game as well as her appearance. “I think Ivanovic is one of the prettiest girls we have playing, and she’s sweet and competitive and graceful at the same time,” said former World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, while Ana’s compatriot in the men’s game, Janko Tipsarević, gushed: “I cannot even talk to her; she’s too nice for me.”
So Ana’s never going to have too many problems with her public image—she’s too wholeheartedly decent for that. But it’s great PR for Serbia’s international image when the world sees the likes of Ana and other Serbian natives like Novak Djokovic and Jelena Jankovic winning people over with their good grace, humour and smiles.
It’s a far cry from the turbulent life those three experienced growing up in Belgrade. Ana’s memories make for hard reading. “The 24th of March 1999 is the most distinct memory that I have,” she says. “Everything was ready for my cousin’s birthday party, Milica, who was turning six. But NATO started bombing Belgrade. As the war finished, in June, we started exactly from that point, from Milica’s missed birthday.” During the war, Ana would practice in the empty swimming pool between NATO bombing raids, such was her level of commitment to her game.
It would have been a life-changing process for all young Serbs, and is perhaps one reason why Ana accepted the offer to become a UNICEF ambassador. The focus of her work for them is violence in schools. “I was struck by the statistics: in Serbia 65 percent of children have experienced violence at least once. School is the place where you should feel safest on earth. It’s a great honour and I want to help as much as I can.”
She says it with sincerity that most supposedly charitable movie stars and politicians lack, and possesses the rare ability to get enthusiastic about each and every challenge that is thrown at her. She’s always game for whatever her sponsors suggest in the way of photo shoots and media appearances; she’ll be in Beijing for the Olympics with genuine excitement at the idea of being part of the Olympic Village buzz; and for Wimbledon this year, she’s once again shunned the prospect of a luxury hotel in order to stay at a nearby house. “I’m in hotels most of the year. It’s very nice to be able to stay in a house and just enjoy the cosy environment,” she says.
Ana is a rare breed among successful sportspeople. She has time for everyone, she’s never forgotten who she is or where she’s from, and while deeply determined to be the best, you sense she knows deep down that it’s just a game, and that losing is just a part of the process. There’s always next time and so when she loses she can hold her head high and look forward with eager anticipation to the next match. Her favourite saying is: “A smile is a curve that can straighten out a lot of problems.” And that’s exactly how Ana lives out her life, and her challenges—from a professional perspective—have just begun.
Serb and Volley
A talented trio of Serbian tennis players have taken the game by storm in recent years.
Ana Ivanovic: Brilliantly talented, and hugely tall and powerful at 6 foot, 1 inch. Will surely win her first Grand Slam in the coming months. Age 20.
Novak Djokovic: The brilliant winner of this year’s Australian Open is the only serious challenger to the dominance of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the men’s game. Age 21.
Jelena Jankovic: Talented World No. 4 who charmed the Wimbledon crowds in 2007 with her flirtatious behaviour and on-court chemistry with doubles partner Jamie Murray. Age 23. |
