WTATour.com Win of the Week - Ana Ivanovic
October 24, 2004 www.wtatour.com/

ZURICH, Switzerland - There have been a number of young teenagers who have emerged onto the tennis scene this year including 16-year-old Tatiana Golovin and 15-year-old Nicole Vaidisova.

Now you can add Ana Ivanovic into the mix.

The soon to be 17-year-old proved her worthiness on the WTA Tour last week with two remarkable matches at the Swisscom Challenge. Before falling to Venus Williams in a pair of tie-breaks, Ivanovic put together a spirited victory against Golovin 75 67(2) 76(3) - this week's WTATour.com Win of the Week.

Entering the match, Ivanovic's 2004 campaign was nothing short of spectacular. She had played 30 matches on the ITF circuit and won all 30, improving her WTA Ranking from outside of 700 to a career-best of No.152.

But her results in Tour action were anything but desirable. She played in the first round at Vienna and Birmingham, along with the first round of qualifying at the US Open, but failed to win any of those matches.

So when she reached the main draw in Zurich after qualifying wins against Marlene Weingartner, Klara Koukalova and Jelena Kostanic, Ivanovic may have finally gotten the break she needed.

Her main draw debut at a Tier I event wouldn't come easy as she sat on the opposite side of the net from another 16-year-old, Golovin. The French teenager has played at the Tour level since her strong start at the Australian Open and was sure to have the experience advantage against Ivanovic.

Golovin got off to a strong start, taking a 4-1 lead before Ivanovic rattled off four straight games to serve for the set. She lost the next service game to the young Frenchwoman at love but broke right back and served out the first set.

Golovin also held a lead in the second set at 5-3 before Ivanovic again leveled the match at 5-all. The set eventually went to a tie-break where Golovin held steady to even the match.

In the third, it was again Golovin who dashed out to a strong 5-1 lead. However, she served for the match at 5-2, 5-4 and 6-5, holding two match points while serving in the 5-4 game, but failed to close out the match. She then dug herself a 5-0 hole in the tie-break and ultimately squandered her large lead and the match to Ivanovic.

"I was a little bit nervous to start the match, but after a while I became more comfortable," Ivanovic said. "Even when I was down 5-1, I tried to stay calm and believe in myself. This is obviously my biggest win.

"I started the year ranked around 700, but I played a lot of matches in ITF events, sometimes playing eight matches in one week, going through qualies, so that has been good to give me match practice and self-confidence."

After that, Ivanovic again showed that she will be a future force on the Tour, coming back from first and second set deficits to take No.7 seed Venus Williams into a pair of tie-breaks, 76(11) 76(6). Williams held a 4-1 lead in the first and 4-2 in the second that evaporated against the determined Ivanovic.