
Ana Ivanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Ана Ивановић) is a
Serbian professional tennis player. She started tennis
at the age of five after seeing the sport on TV. She
asked her parents to take her to the local tennis school
and she was given a small racket as a birthday present
from her father shortly after. Her idol is legendary
tennis player and fellow Yugoslavian Monica Seles, who
she says is her main inspiration for wanting to be a
tennis player.
She first caught the eye of the tennis world when she
reached the final of the junior Wimbledon tournament in
2004, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. In 2004 she also
went 26-0 on the challenger circuit, and won all 4
events that she entered, two of them as a challenger.
Her first proffesional breakthrough occurred in October
of 2004 when she took Venus Williams to two tiebreaks
before losing 7-6(11) 7-6(6) in the second round of the
Zurich Open in Zurich, Switzerland. She followed that up
with a quarterfinal showing in Luxembourg the following
week.
Ana is currently the 16th ranked player in the world,
and at just 18, has already established herself as not
only a star of the future, but a fan favorite. She is
aiming to make it into the women's top 10 rankings
during 2006 which many expect her to achieve.
In 2005 she won her first career singles titles, as a
qualifier, in Canberra, Australia. She knocked out local
favourite and 3rd seed Amélie Mauresmo in the 2005
French Open's third round, before falling to Nadia
Petrova in the quarterfinals.
Ana began 2006 by playing at the Hopman Cup with
fellow Serbian Novak Đoković where the pair narrowly
missed the final. However, Ana had strong performances
and both Ana and Novak endeared themselves to many
Australian fans with charming personalities and
entertaining play. She then played in a Sydney
tournament where she once again defeated Mauresmo before
falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.
Ana plays right-handed with a two-handed backhand.
She has a strong forehand and serves well (at least
because of her height of 6' or 1.83m).
Since her professional debut in August 2003 she won 5
ITF Titles and One WTA Single Title (Canberra 2005)
|
|
MORE ATHLETES | SEXY SPORTS CHICKS
| |