Ivanovic has tools to be top-10 challenger

from  msn.foxsports.com. June 01 2006

Russian blondes are all the rage in women's tennis — Maria Sharapova, her good friend Maria Kirilenko and their elder rival, Elena Dementieva.


    But brunettes have a major place in the game, too, on court and off; and no dark haired teen may have a greater impact on the game in the upcoming years than Serbian diva Ana Ivanovic, who lights up stadiums with her smiles and puts frowns on her foes' faces with her brutish power.

Last year at the French Open, the then 18-year-old stunned Amelie Mauresmo in the third round and went on to the quarterfinals.

Ivanovic stands six feet tall, has a naturally muscular build and plays fairly smart.

The only thing that's stopping her from becoming a top-10 player by year's end is a lack of foot speed and balance.

But she can't stop grinning about her good fortune, which is a good indication that she'll be able to weather losses on her way up the ladder.

"I feel no pressure because tennis is what I love to do," she said after destroying France's Emilie Loit 6-1, 6-1 on Thursday. "Tennis is a new experience. Every tournament is a new experience. The only pressure you have is from yourself. To me, it's still just a game."

Tennis is a game she plays quite well and will likely draw significant profits from.

She's already participated in photo shoots for a number of magazines, donning long skirts and leather jackets in a period piece, and doing a standard, racy shoot on a Miami Beach.

Last year, she was named the sport's sexiest player by a fan poll on one Internet site, edging the seemingly unbeatable Sharapova. Her response was to thank her fans, but she added that she was sure she was honored because of her on-court success. And that's somewhat true because had she not jumped 608 places in the rankings in 2005 and won her first Sony Eriksson WTA Tour title, she would have been just another pretty face playing on a backcourt.

Now she's the 19th seed at the French Open with a huge match coming up against 2004 champion Anastasia Myskina, a contest where she has a decent chance to win.

"It was a little strange in the beginning," she said of her newfound celebrity. I need time to understand that it's an important part of being a player. I only look at the positives of all that exposure, so it's just fine for me. Everything came so fast, but it's nice to see fans who follow you. It says you've done something that is worth talking about. Without fans, having pro tennis would be difficult."

That's a pretty thoughtful perspective from a young player, but Ivanovic is not just a run of the mill product of some brainless tennis academy. She still studies (history, art, physics, sociology and information technology among other things), is a voracious reader and is just about to take her high school exit exams.

Her mother, Dragana, is a lawyer, while her father, Miroslav, is an economist. She has pretty substantial thinking genes, and if she can get herself into top physical condition, she should be able to consistently compete with all the elite blondes, as well as with the other standout brunettes, too.

"I really worked on my conditioning at the end of last year," she said. "I have to be in a situation where I can play my best, and I can't really compete at the level I want to if I'm getting tired."

After finishing last year ranked No. 16 and earning the Tour's Most Improved Player Award, Ivanovic has had a decent but not standout year, reaching three quarterfinals but also falling to a slew of top players.

She can crush the ball off both wings, but at her size, she should dominate more with her serve and could volley a whole lot better. She's not as tall as Lindsay Davenport or Venus Williams (yet); nor does she have Davenport's super-sound technique or Venus' hurdler's speed.

But she has a tremendous return of serve and has a lot of fun redesigning points.

"She is very powerful," Loit said. "She has a lot of strength, and I'm sure she has a good future."

Many teenagers push themselves too quickly and are often confused when the results don't come as quickly as they did in the juniors. Pro tennis is full of women with solid groundstrokes and high goals.

It's the players who can figure out what is going wrong with their games and make strident attempts to fix it that dig themselves into the upper echelons of the game.

"Every tournament, I play to win," Ivanovic said. "But I want to focus on what I have to do to improve. I'm still young. I take each match as a new experience. I go step by step and live in the moment."

Ivanovic seems to say everything with a beaming smile on her face. She sees her tennis career as an unending birthday party. She doesn't like to lose and admits that it's harder to stay positive when she's dropped a contest that she feels she should have won, but no matter what, she can put the result aside and go into a deep meditation about what went wrong and what she will do the next time to cure her ills.

A lot could go wrong against Myskina, who isn't in top form, but she thinks with the best of them and has munched on many teens for breakfast. Ivanovic realizes that.

"I have to have her adapt to my game and not the other way around," she said.

Ivanovic is already in love with Paris and Roland Garros, as it's the locale where she first broke through on a major stage against a beloved, significant player.

She's not favored to win the French Open this year, but she already envisions herself raising the trophy on a final Saturday in the not too distant future.

"That's my goal," she said. "I'm looking forward to (seeing) myself in that situation."

Matthew Cronin / tennisreporters.net