IVANOVIC IS ONE TO WATCH
www.sportinglife.com     28.03.2005

Serbian teenager Ana Ivanovic is fast emerging as the new young star you should not dare miss in the imminent English grass-court season.

The 17-year-old has already proven that Wimbledon's lush lawns are to her liking after reaching the junior final at the All England Club in 2004.

And now Ivanovic has her eyes on a bigger prize after spectacularly gatecrashing the senior circuit this year.

Victories over reigning US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and world number 12 Nadia Petrova carried her into the quarter-finals of the major NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami this week.

It means she is certain to crack the world's top 50 in the next round of rankings - not bad for a player who was languishing in the low 700s just over a year ago.

"It's a really big thing for me," said Ivanovic, a third grader at school back in Belgrade, after overcoming Kuznetsova.

"I am really happy. I have beaten two top 15 players and that gives me more experience and confidence."

Ivanovic had already shown she has a taste for the big matches. In Canberra in January, she battled all the way through qualifying to claim her first WTA Tour title - in only her fifth tournament.

"It is an amazing feeling," Ivanovic gushed.

"I didn't expect to win this tournament and I was a little nervous out there. But it is my first title and it will give me more energy to keep working hard and improving."

Ivanovic followed up that fine win by moving to the third round of the Australian Open in only her second Grand Slam event.

Last year, Ivanovic took Venus Williams to two tie-break sets in the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich, as well as winning all 30 of her matches on the lower ITF Tour - improving her ranking more than 500 places to 152 in the process.

Small wonder some of her fellow tour stars have already marked down Ivanovic as one to watch.

"We're probably going to see a lot more of her in the next few years," said Amelie Mauresmo, who was due to meet Ivanovic in the last eight in Miami.

"She has been improving a lot in these last few months. She needs to move around a little better but she can improve that and she hits the ball hard."