Is That Really Ana Ivanovic?

By Leigh Sanders

Watching my TV set yesterday evening as the sun began setting behind the beautiful South Wales hills, I watched a tanned little beauty dismantling Chinese star Zheng Jie, the No. 21 seed.

As I watched a confident young lady slam home some powerful forehands and completely dismantle her opponent’s second serve I saw a little fist pumping the air in celebration.

 Hang on… is that Ana Ivanovic?

After capturing the 2008 French Open Championships big things were expected of the pin-up with the winning smile. But it didn’t quite happen. And the pressure of expectation lead to a gargantuan loss of confidence and the former world No. 1, who was the top seed here in NY two years ago, recently crashed to as low as No. 65 in the world.

She had lost her past two meeting with Zheng and one had been that Wimbledon first round encounter where the Chinese flyer dismantled Ivanovic 6-3, 6-0 in 55 minutes.

So how sweet revenge must have been for a girl who has fought hard to dispel Kournikova-style quips about style over substance.

Sports giants Adidas have recently included Ivanovic as a prominent face in their worldwide advertising campaigns and although you cannot deny her looks played a part it is still testament to her ability and this boost seems to have worked wonders with that flaky confidence.

At last year’s Open, I sat on Grandstand Court in the early evening where the No. 11 seed Ivanovic faced the unseeded Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko in the first round. Having lost the first set she rallied to take the second 6-3 and was two breaks up in the third.

Confident I had seen Ivanovic close the match out I left my seat to gain a good vantage point on Ashe for Andy Murray’s upcoming evening match. When it came through on the big screen that Ivanovic had in fact lost that final set I could only laugh in disbelief.

But this year it all looks so different. Having gained some good results on the US hard courts running up to this Open, she reached the semifinals in Cincy, this looks like the Ivanovic of old.

She is moving quickly, her shot selection is almost spot on. She seems less susceptible to tantrums on court and seems far more in control of her emotions and her belief in her own ability.

Her only real remaining problem on show was that ball toss. On occasion she was tossing and dropping the ball three times before a serve without as much as a wave of apology to her opponent. This gained a few murmurs of disapproval from the crowd.

But, most tellingly, these mumblings didn’t affect her game and she soon had them back onside with some sweeping passing shots that had Zheng squealing in disbelief in the searing East Coast heat. Maybe only six months ago the first grumbles may have led to an Ivanovic collapse.

Recently Ana has reignited her feud with fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic who recently mimicked Ivanovic’s fist pump on court in a dig at her Fed Cup teammate. But rather than shrink at the criticism and shrivel back in to her shell Ana should just take it on the chin as a compliment.

Jealousy and fear are dangerous in sport and Ana has obviously done enough to rile her rivals. With the women’s draw looking so open this year could we have another unseeded winner in 2010?

I don’t think she’s quite ready for that yet. I can’t personally see past the Dane Caroline Wozniacki or Kim Clijsters retaining her crown.

But with the heat playing havoc with most players out there, just look at Azarenka, you can never say never.

Imagine the fist pumps we’d be seeing then!