Thursday, September 15, 2011

Ana Ivanovic


The Sexy Serbian Tennis Player Ana Ivanovic

Ana Ivanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Ана ; Serbian pronunciation: ( listen)) (born November 6, 1987, in Belgrade, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia) is a former world no. 1 Serbian tennis player. As of August 29, 2011, she is ranked world no. 19 on the WTA rankings. She beat Dinara Safina to win the 2008 French Open and was the runner-up in singles at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open. Competing as a professional since 2003, she has won 10 WTA Tour singles titles.
Ivanović's mother Dragana (Драгана), a lawyer, supports her daughter during most of her matches. Her father Miroslav (Мирослав), a self-employed businessman, attends as many events as he possibly can. Ana has a younger brother, Miloš (Милош), with whom she loves to play basketball.

Aside from her tennis career, Ivanović also studies finance at a university in Belgrade and Spanish in her spare time Her inspiration to begin playing was Monika Seleš, who at that time played for Yugoslavia.

On September 8, 2007, Ivanović became a UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia, alongside Aleksandar Đorđević, Jelena Janković 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 that she is "also looking forward to going into the classroom and meeting many kids."
Ivanović picked up a racket at the age of five after watching Monica Seles, a fellow Yugoslav, on television. She started her career after memorizing the number of a local tennis clinic from an advertisement. At the time, she was forced to train during the morning to avoid bombardments. Later, she admitted that she trained in an abandoned swimming pool in the winter, as there were no other facilities. When she was 15, Ivanović spent four hours in the locker room crying after a defeat – the first that her new manager had watched. She thought that Dan Holzmann, the manager in question, would drop her, thinking that she was not good enough to become a professional tennis player. He has stayed her manager to this day.
Ivanović reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament in 2004, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. In 2004, she went 26–0 on the ITF circuit, and won all five events that she entered, two of them as a qualifier. As a qualifier in Zürich, she overcame a 5–1 third set deficit along with two match points to defeat World no. 29 Tatiana Golovin. She then debuted in the qualifying draw of a Grand Slam at the 2004 US Open, where she was defeated by Lioudmila Skavronskaia after winning the first set 6–1. She eventually fell to a close loss, 6–1, 4–6, 5–7. Her first professional breakthrough occurred in the next match, when she took Venus Williams to two tiebreaks before losing in straight sets in the second round of the Zürich Open. She had held several set points in both sets. She followed up her run in Zürich with a quarterfinal showing at Luxembourg the next week.
Ivanović won her first career singles title, as a qualifier, in Canberra, Australia, after defeating Melinda Czink in the final. Her ranking continued to rise after wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova, and Vera Zvonareva, all of whom were top 10 players. Ivanović lost to Amélie Mauresmo at the Australian Open, Doha, and Miami Masters, before defeating her in the third round of the French Open. At that stage in her career it was arguably her biggest win.Ivanović eventually reached the quarterfinals of that tournament, where she lost to Petrova Later in the year, Ivanović reached the semifinals of the Zurich Open and Generali Ladies Linz, losing to Patty Schnyder in both tournaments.
Ivanović has started the year at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia with fellow Serbian Novak Djoković, where the pair narrowly missed the final.[13] To start off her WTA year she played at the Medibank International in Sydney where she once again defeated Amélie Mauresmo, this time in straight sets, before falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. A week later, she lost to Samantha Stosur in the second round of the Australian Open.
Ivanović made it to the third round of the French Open before losing to Anastasia Myskina. She progressed to the fourth round at Wimbledon but lost to eventual champion Amélie Mauresmo in straight sets.

Ivanović made her breakthrough in August when she defeated former World No. 1 Martina Hingis in the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal. This ultimately led to her winning the United States Open Series ahead of Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova. At the US Open she lost to Serena Williams.

Ivanović also played nine tournaments in doubles in 2006, teaming up with Maria Kirilenko and Sania Mirza. Ivanović and Kirilenko made two semifinals and a final; they ended the year at number 17 in the annual Race to the Championships. Ivanović finished the year ranked World No. 14 in singles and World No. 51 in doubles.

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