Ana Ivanović born November 6, 1987, in Belgrade) is
a Serbian professional tennis player. She is
currently ranked World No. 2 and is the top ranked
Serbian player, just in front of compatriot Jelena
Janković. At the 2007 French Open, Ivanović reached
her first Grand Slam singles final, losing to
Justine Henin. She also reached the semifinals of
Wimbledon and the Women's Tennis Association Tour
Championships in 2007. At the 2008 Australian Open
final, she was defeated by Maria Sharapova.
Ana was born in an ethnic Serb family. Her mother,
Dragana, a lawyer, attends her daughter's matches
all season along, while Ana's father, Miroslav, who
is a self-employed businessman attends as many
events as he possibly can. Ana has a younger
brother, Miloš, with whom she loves to play
basketball. Other hobbies include shopping, watching
movies and playing Sudoku. Ivanović's uncle is a
former footballer and her coach although she chooses
not to have a permanent coach. Aside from her tennis
career, Ivanović also studies finance and Spanish at
a university in Belgrade. One of her uncles lives in
Melbourne, Australia. Her inspiration to begin
playing was Monica Seles, and she also admires Roger
Federer.
On September 8, 2007, Ivanović has become a UNICEF
National Ambassador for Serbia, alongside Aleksandar
Đorđević and Emir Kusturica. She takes a special
interest in the fields of education and child
protection. Ivanović visited a primary school in
Serbia during her inauguration and said: "I'm also
looking forward to going into the classroom and
meeting many kids."
Ivanović is an offensive baseliner. She relies
heavily on the power, depth, and placement of her
forehand strokes, producing many winners through
penetrating, flat shots with occasional topspin. Her
net play has improved significantly, and her drop
shots are generally well executed. Ivanović's
two-handed backhand is solid, but if she has time to
get in the correct court position, she prefers to
hit an inside-out forehand. She has a forceful but
unreliable serve, although she occasionally hits
aces on her second serve. She has occasionally won
matches with a first serve percentage of below 40%.
Because of her height, Ivanović spends much of her
training time on improving her fitness and footwork.
Ivanović often describes her own playing as "point
by point," making it possible for her to win matches
that seemed to have been lost. On the other hand,
her quality of play can vary significantly from
match to match. Ivanović also has difficulty in
adapting and changing her strategy when not in
control of a match.
Her style is suitable for all surfaces; however, she
prefers to play on clay courts. This is probably
because clay courts give her more time to reach
shots from her opponent. Although it is generally
more difficult to hit through opponents on a slow
clay surface, Ivanović has sufficiently powerful
strokes to overcome much of this disadvantage.
Ivanović was endorsed by Nike at the beginning of
her professional career, but at the beginning of
2006 she switched to rival Adidas which is her
current apparel and shoe endorser. She started with
the Wilson HTour racquet, then upgraded to the nTour
and to the nTour Two before switching to the nBlade.
Since the beginning of 2008 Ivanović is using the
Yonex RQiS Tour 1.
