Ana Ivanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Ана Ивановић, pronounced [ˈana iˈvaːnɔviʨ], listen born November 6, 1987, in Belgrade, Serbia, then Yugoslavia) is a former World No.1 Serbian tennis player. She is the current World No.5 in the WTA Tour and the reigning French Open champion. She was also the runner-up in singles at the 2007 French Open[2] and the 2008 Australian Open.[3]
Ivanović's mother, Dragana who is a lawyer, attends all of her daughter's matches. Her father, Miroslav, 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.[4] Other hobbies include shopping, watching movies and playing Sudoku. She chooses not to have a permanent coach.[5] Aside from her tennis career, Ivanović also studies finance at a university in Belgrade, and Spanish in her spare time.[5] Her inspiration to begin playing was Monica Seles, and she also admires Roger Federer.[6]
On September 8, 2007, Ivanović became 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."[7]
Ivanović is a fan of all sport clubs competing under the name of Partizan Belgrade.[8]
Ivanović is friends with former doubles partner Maria Kirilenko, as well as other professional tennis players Daniela Hantuchová, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Sanja Ančić, Rafael Nadal, Tatiana Golovin and fellow Serbians Jelena Janković and Novak Djokovic (whom she has known since the age of 5) and Janko Tipsarević .[9]
Ivanović confirmed in November 2008 that she was in a relationship with the Spanish tennis player Fernando Verdasco. [10]
Ivanović started the year by participating in an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, where she was seeded first. She lost to Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals, 6–4, 1–6, 6–3. Ivanović then entered the Silver Group, a competition among all first match losers. Based on her world ranking, she was favored to win that competition; however, she lost to World No. 45 Shuai Peng, 6–1, 6–3.
Ivanović's next tournament was the Tier II Medibank International in Sydney, which attracted 12 of the top 15 ranked women. After trailing, 5–2, in the third set of her second round match, Ivanović defeated Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano, 6–1, 2–6, 7–5. In the quarterfinals, Ivanović defeated Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik but then lost to Justine Henin in the semifinals, 6–2, 2–6, 6–4. This was the first time in four meetings that Ivanović took a set off Henin.
Ivanović entered the Australian Open as the fourth seed and reached the quarterfinals for the first time. There, Ivanović defeated Venus Williams for the first time, 7–6, 6–4. In her semifinal against Daniela Hantuchová, Ivanović prevailed, 0–6, 6–3, 6–4, to reach her second career Grand Slam singles final, after having trailed, 6–0, 2–0. She then lost to Maria Sharapova, 7–5, 6–3. Because of her performance at this tournament, her ranking rose to World No. 2, the highest of her career at the time.
In Serbia's Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I D round robin tie against Poland in Budapest, Ivanović defeated World No. 215 Urszula Radwańska in straight sets. In Serbia's second round robin tie against Romania, Ivanović defeated Monica Niculescu, 5–7, 6–4, 7–5, and then teamed with Jelena Janković to win the deciding doubles rubber against the Romanian team, 2–6, 7–6(3), 7–6(2). In the promotion playoff, Ivanović beat Renee Reinhard of the Netherlands, 6–2, 3–6, 6–3, as Serbia advanced to the World Group II playoffs in April.
Ivanović was the top-seeded player at the Qatar Total Open in Doha for the first time in a Tier I tournament. She defeated Olga Govortsova in the second round, 6–3, 6–1, but subsequently withdrew from the tournament because of an ankle injury suffered during that match. The following week at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, the third-seeded Ivanović lost in the quarterfinals to the eighth-seeded Dementieva, 5–7, 6–3, 6–3.
In March at the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, the top-seeded Ivanović defeated Janković in the semifinals, 7–6(3), 6–3, before defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. At the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Ivanović was the second-seeded player but lost to Lindsay Davenport in the third round in straight sets.
Ivanović was the defending champion and second-seeded player at the Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin. She lost, however, to Dementieva in the semifinals, 6–2, 7–5, for the fourth time in four career matches. At the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Ivanović was the top seed but lost in the second round to Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova, 6–4, 5–7, 6–2.
Ivanović was the second-seeded player at the French Open. She defeated World No. 3 Janković in the semifinals, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, guaranteeing that Ivanović would become the World No. 1, regardless of whether she won the final. Ivanović then went on to defeat Dinara Safina in the final, winning her first Grand Slam singles title.
At Wimbledon, Ivanović was the top-seeded player and defeated French veteran player Nathalie Dechy in the second round, 6–7(2), 7–6(3), 10–8. The match took 3 hours, 24 minutes to play, with Ivanović saving two match points while trailing, 5–4, in the second set and Dechy saving three match points in the third set before succumbing. Ivanović then lost in the third round to unseeded wildcard Zheng Jie of China, who was ranked World No. 133, 6–1, 6–4.
At the Canada Masters held in Montreal, Ivanović was the top seed and received a bye in the first round, but fell in the third round to Austrian teen Tamira Paszek 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. Ivanović told reporters after the match that she had been bothered by a sore thumb throughout the tournament, sustained two weeks prior to the event while practicing.[16]
Following a string of poor results and failure to defend her title at the East West Bank Classic in California, Ivanović officially relinquished her World No. 1 ranking on August 11 to fellow Serbian Jelena Janković. Ivanović held the World No. ranking for nine consecutive weeks.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Ivanović was scheduled to meet 53rd seed Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine in the first round. However, on August 10, Ivanović withdrew from the Olympics citing a recurrent thumb injury sustained during training after Wimbledon. Seeded number one at the event, Ivanović described the decision as "one of the worst moments of her career."[17]
Due to Jelena Janković's loss to Dinara Safina at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Ivanović reclaimed her number one spot on August 18, 2008, and was the top-seeded player at the 2008 U.S. Open.[18]
At the U.S. Open, Ivanović lost in three sets to Julie Coin, who was an unseeded qualifier and ranked 187 places lower than her. The defeat was the earliest by a top seed in the open era at the U.S. Open since Billie Jean King's third round loss to Julie Heldman in 1973.[19] Because of her early loss, her number one spot was given to Serena Williams. Ivanović dropped to number 3 in the world.
In her first match since the U.S. Open, which was the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Ivanović was upset by Nadia Petrova of Russia in three sets, bringing her win-loss record since her maiden grand slam win at Roland Garros to 4-4. Ivanović later told the press that she was "just happy to be back injury-free" and that she needed to "play more matches get back into rhythm."[20]
In her next tournament, the China Open in Beijing, Ivanović beat world no. 18 Alizé Cornet of France, 6–1, 7–6, in the second round after receiving a first round bye. The win was Ivanović's first straight sets victory since her opening round win at Wimbledon. She was, however, defeated in a three-set match to Zheng Jie, 7–6, 2–6, 6–4, in the quarterfinals.
At the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Ivanović played her first doubles match on the WTA Tour since June 2007, teaming up with Francesca Schiavone to defeat the Spanish/Russian pairing of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Elena Vesnina, 7–6, 6–7, 10–5. Ivanović lost in singles' competition to Slovak teenager Dominika Cibulková in the second round, 7–6, in the final set despite having two match points of her own at 5–4. Later that day in the doubles event, Ivanović and Schiavone were defeated by top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber, 10–7, in the Champions' tiebreak after losing the first set, 6–2, and winning the second, 6–4.
In the last edition of the Zurich Open in Switzerland, Ivanović defeated world no. 16 Marion Bartoli, 6–2, 6–4, in the second round and then came through against Czech teenager Petra Kvitová, 6–1, 6–4, in the quarterfinals. It was the first time Ivanović had won back-to-back matches since the first two rounds of Wimbledon, her first in straight sets since the French Open. However, in her sixth semifinal of the year, Ivanović lost to Venus Williams, 6–4, 3–6, 4–6.
At the Generali Ladies Linz in Austria, Ivanović was the top seed. After receiving a bye in the first round, Ivanović comfortably defeated Sybille Bammer 6–2, 6–4 in the second round. Ivanović then won her quarter-final match up with Flavia Pennetta 6–4, 6–4. In the semi-finals, Ivanović overcame Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwańska in a match that took over two hours to be completed, 6–2, 3–6, 7–5 to reach her first final on the WTA Tour since her maiden grand slam title at the French Open and her rise to the world No. 1 position. Ivanović then went on to defeat second seed Vera Zvonareva in the final, 6–2, 6–1.
At the WTA Tour Championships held in Doha, Qatar, Ivanović was the fourth seed. In her first round robin match, she was defeated by World No. 1 Jelena Janković 6–3, 6–4. Her next match was against Vera Zvonareva, whom she lost to, 6–3, 6–7(5), 6–4. She withdrew from her final match against Svetlana Kuznetsova due to a virus.[21]
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Ivanovi%C4%87