The Curious Case of Ana Ivanovic

The video features highlights from the high-quality 2008 French Open semifinal featuring Ana Ivanovic and her fellow Serbian, Jelena Jankovic. Ana, dressed in a sleek, pink adidas kit would go on to defeat JJ in three sets in this match, book her third Grand Slam final (her second straight for 2008), become the #1 ranked women's tennis player in the world and win her first Slam trophy (beating Russian Dinara Safina). Ana was arguably the most popular Serbian during this time, even more popular than her childhood friend and fellow tennis player, Novak Djokovic. She even got me to start watching tennis again because I just absolutely loved her game. She hits the ball very cleanly and has a lovely, but lethal, forehand that she could hit from different sides of the court even if off-balanced. Ana also has a made for Hollywood story to tell that made me adore her even more (imagine arranging your practice sessions while dodging NATO bombs in war-torn Serbia and honing your tennis skills in an abandoned swimming pool for lack of a better facility?). 

Beautiful, smart, genuinely nice and charming (an anti-mean girl) and, most importantly, a very talented tennis player, Ana was the perfect face to represent the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) after Justine Henin's sudden retirement (she would come back in 2010 but then retire again in 2011 due to an elbow injury) and the Williams sisters inability to regularly compete in tournaments. The WTA finally hit the jackpot with Ana at #1 and Maria Sharapova at #2 (this was before Sharapova was sidelined by a shoulder injury that almost ended her career). Ana would, however, turn out to be the biblical Job of women's tennis. Niggling injuries, bad luck and humiliating losses (imagine losing in the second round of a Grand Slam tournament to the 188th-ranked player in the world while you're still #1 and be on the opposite end of probably the greatest upset in the history of sports) soon followed her Cinderella story. The pressure of being a marketable, top-ranked player was just too much for her to bear (for an account of her struggles for the past four years, click here). What followed was a long slump peppered with stops and gos, a loss in confidence and a dramatic fall in rankings (she fell to #65 in July of 2010). Fans (*ahem*) would get excited with a couple of good wins only to be deflated afterwards when she suffers a bad loss or when she picks up an injury that would derail her progress once again.

Amidst the bad breaks, heartbreaking losses and calls for her to drop tennis and take up modelling full time (the slump has thankfully never affected her good looks), Ana plodded on injury after injury and bad loss after another. She endured the endless questioning from the media about her poor form with enough insight, wit and self-deprecating humor (Ana fans picked up and learned to poke fun at her to cope with the heartbreaking losses). Always on the look out for ways to turnaround her game, Ana hired and fired several coaches (she's currently being coached by Nigel Sears) and just refused to give up. When Ana plays well, she's like an action hero who imperiously beats up her opponents to submission. When she loses, she's like a female version of Superman who wilts from kryptonite and steals defeat from the jaws of victory.

Fast forward to today and she's still not the same player that she was back in 2008. While Ana seems to have had the best start of the year than she has had in the last couple of years (a good showing at the Australian Open, Dubai and Indian Wells), she has so far not found her form on clay just yet. Considered her best surface (she was a back-to-back French Open finalist in 2007 and 2008), she is so far struggling on clay (4-8 win-loss record on this surface since 2010, currently 1-2 this year), which is unfortunate since she could pick up a lot of points during this time of the year to enable her to inch closer to the top 10 (she's currently at #15) and qualify for the WTA Year End Championships later this year. I hope she picks it up in her upcoming clay tournaments.

As a fan, I don't know if she could still be that fearless, adidas pink dress-wearing Ana from 2008 who managed to win a Grand Slam and get to #1 in one week (she hasn't reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal since winning the French Open in 2008). But there's still the hope and belief that her hard work and perseverance will be rewarded in the end. As much as people fell in love with her swimming pool story, nothing would be better than an uplifting comeback story. She's simply too nice and too talented not to have another shot at a Grand Slam title and a #1 ranking.