Larry Brown Sports

There was a time when Ana Ivanovic was the hottest thing on the women’s tennis tour. That was back in 2007 and 2008 when she reached the semifinals of four of five majors. Since then, she hasn’t made it past the round of 16 in grand slams and she’s become mostly forgotten. Well, she’s been forgotten by everyone except Adam Scott.

The golfer told a Norwegiean site that he and Ivanovic are starting to date again after breaking up last year. Here’s a Google translation of his comments:

Scott has just taken up the relationship with the Serbian tennis star Ana Ivanovic. The pair broke each other a year ago.

“Ana and I have just begun to see each other again,” reveals Scott. “We have found a way to get it working well on. The past has taught me is that if you want anything to work, you’ll get it to work. Without problems.

“Ana is an amazing person. She is the most caring I have ever met. It is rare to meet such people, especially when they are in the position she is.”

Scott reveals that Ana Ivanovic is very down to earth and pleasant to be around. At the same time, she has a great sense of humor and is great fun. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to keep up with her.”

Well good luck to both of them. Let’s hope this is a winning formula for Ana who is still trying to regain her form. The good news is she’s at least 20th in the rankings. The bad news is she’s still far from looking like an elite player.

via Busted Racquet

Ana Ivanovic has gone from French Open champion to wild card qualifier, and now she’s trying to work her way back up the tennis rankings. The 23-year-old Serbian is seeded 19th in this year’s Australian Open and said prior to the tournament “I’m in really good shape compared to previous years.” She wasn’t joking.

Ivanovic, who was 20 and 21 years old when she was at the peak of her game between 2007 and 2008, has dropped a little over 10 pounds recently. Watching her first-round match against Ekaterina Makarova, Ana was moving about the court with ease and reaching balls she never used to. She was extending rallies with her footwork, and making her opponent earn every point.

Ana won’t be confused for Michael Chang anytime soon, but she managed plenty of winners and few unforced errors. Best part of all, she seems to have fixed one of the biggest weaknesses in her game — her toss. Instead of hitting erratic serves off bad tosses, she’s now catching her tosses to avoid the bad shot.

Ivanovic’s draw isn’t the easiest — she should win her first three matches before facing Kim Clijsters in the 4th round, but the good news is she appears to be in the kind of shape to get back in the Top 10.

UPDATE: After taking the first set 6-3, Ivanovic lost the next two sets 6-4 and 10-8. She fought back from down 0-40 in two service games in the final set, and fought off five match points altogether. Though she’s in shape, Ivanovic still needs to work on the mental part of her game so she can finish off opponents.

If Ana Ivanovic were a musician, she’d be the equivalent of a one-hit wonder. Since winning the French Open in 2008 (which marked a run of reaching three finals in five grand slams), Ivanovic’s play has dropped off dramatically. Ana posted a losing record the rest of the year after winning at Roland Garros in ’08, falling in the third round at Wimbledon and the second round at the U.S. Open despite being the tournament’s top seed. Ivanovic had a thumb injury in ’08 and has gone through a slew of coaches since but she has failed to regain her form.

Ana did not make it past the fourth round of any major in 2009. 2010 has proven to be an even more miserable year for Ivanovic; she bowed out of the Australian Open and French Open in the second round and Wimbledon in the first. With an 11-12 record on the year, the Serbian beauty’s world ranking is down to 63rd. As a result, Ivanovic can’t make it into most tournament draws so she has to request a wild card from the hosts. Unfortunately for Ana, the people running the show in Montreal are denying her a wild card for the Rogers Cup, forcing her to go through qualifying.

Ordinarily I’d say that Ana has done this too herself and that is the truth. However, it must also be noted that there are three wild cards available for the Rogers Cup draw and it appears as if one is going to 125th ranked Stephanie Dubois, who also happens to be Canadian. Between Dubois and Aleksandra Wozniak, that’s two wild cards going to Canadians. Ivanovic’s poor play speaks for itself this year, but she is ranked twice as high as Wozniak, a former winner in Montreal, and they’re using her in a promotional ad on the tournament’s Web site. You would think they’d find a way to work her into the main draw but obviously that’s not the case. Oh well, looks like she’ll have to earn her way in — something Dubois should be doing.

Sources:
A humbling decline for Ivanovic [Globe and Mail]

For all the time I spent pumping up Ana Ivanovic last year following her win at the French Open, I have to be fair by mentioning how much of a downturn her career has taken since. Since winning at Roland Garros, Ivanovic hasn’t advanced past the 4th round of any major, including a first-round exit this week at the U.S. Open. She battled a thumb injury last year and has endured bouts with a virus and a knee injury this year. Still, even with the typical type of wear and tear most players go through, you figure she would make at least a quarterfinal appearance or two. Her record this year is a miserable 22-13 and she has routinely exited tournaments by midweek. It’s not even about the competition getting better — most of these ladies are players Ivanovic should rip through but ones she’s losing to.

Whether it’s injuries, coaching changes, or a struggle playing with the bulls eye on her back, Ivanovic hasn’t responded well to her success last year. At this point she’s fallen so far and she’s so far removed from her Grand Slam win that the bulls eye excuse no longer applies. I don’t know if she grew complacent with her win, focusing on her vacationing and her new boyfriend because she was pleased she reached the mountaintop, but she needs to regain focus before she becomes a one-hit wonder. This awful streak of constant underachievement is simply disappointing. She needs to turn it around.

By popular demand, we have the All-Hottest Olympians Team. Usually they have the all-tournament teams and stuff, but athletic prowess is not exactly what concerns us in this instance. After all, what else are the Summer Games good for? Anyway, Jimmy Traina at SI Extra Mustard gave us plenty of excellent choices and provided some inspiration for this carefully selected group. Same with Brahsome who put together a hottest 11 Olympians list, and FanIQ’s Olympians that posed in Playboy.

Well, at least there is some good news in the face of Ana’s third round loss at Wimbledon — we’re soon to see her on the August cover of FHM. I haven’t been shy about posting my feelings of Ana previously, so in case you didn’t get the memo, this oughta help:

More pics from the shoot after the jump, as well as some of Ana’s analysis from her loss at Wimbledon.

Read The Rest of the Story…

I pretty much had this up and ready to go for the last few days, I was just waiting to sub in a few details like the score she won by. Pretty much everything broke perfectly for Ana Ivanovic to win the French Open title this year, her first major win. First it was the news of Justine Henin retiring, then Maria Sharapova went out early, and the Williams sisters made their exits in the 3rd round leaving the draw wide open for Ana’s taking. Ivanovic capitalized and won the tournament without dropping a set, her first major win. It was great to see Ana get the win especially after the way she performed in her last two finals appearances; she got crushed by Henin last year in the French Open finals, and was handled easily at the Australian by Sharapova. Best part is that the win coincides with Ana’s rise to No. 1 in the world — she’ll have the top ranking when the new ones come out next week.

Now, onto important matters. With a Grand Slam win her pocket and the No. 1 ranking to come, where does this place Ana on the list of hottest top-ranked tennis players of all-time? I say she takes the top spot amongst the No. 1′s easily. After the jump, I have some of her competition …

Read The Rest of the Story…

Let’s be honest here: pretty much all of us sports bloggers are just looking for an excuse to throw up a post on Ana Ivanovic. And if I can’t speak for them, then at least I’m speaking for myself. I haven’t exactly been shy when discussing Ana’s amazing looks, so why stop here? The Serbian tennis player is now being featured on a stamp in her home country, so says FanIQ. Apparently 30,000 of these special edition stamps have been produced. The best part is you can match the stamp together with an Ana envelope. Check it out:

I don’t know about you, but I’m bout it bout it. I mean seriously, what better way to send your business than with Ana? I might even opt for snail mail over email just to justify picking up a few of these bad boys.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so I won’t waste any more of them.

So yeah, she’s a tennis player from Austria and lost to Jelena Jankovic in the Australian Open this week. Oh yeah. And she’s 17. But that’s not for too long. Tamira has some goods, but she’s no Ana Ivanovic if you ask me.

Thanks to Andy for passing along. (also spotted at Deadspin, SbB, and WL)

It’s not too often that I like to get all serious and touchy-feely on you, but understand that if I have a chance to mix in a post on Ana Ivanovic, I’m going to do it. After all, she is my favorite tennis player. Anywhoo, there’s a great article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram about Ivanovic and fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic who are in So. Cal this week for the East West Bank Classic. In the article, it describes how Ivanovic grew up practicing tennis amidst bombing.

After all, she was only 11 when NATO forces shelled Belgrade after the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Winter workouts were held indoors as a couple of inventive youth coaches drained the water from a little-used Olympic-sized pool, rolled out green carpet, set up a couple of nets and established a pair of tennis courts.

In the summer, practices were held outdoors on clay courts, but often in the early mornings to avoid the worst of the bombing.

Man, you hear about basketball players learning to ball in the ghetto, and track stars learning to run while escaping the police, but I’ve never quite heard of learning to play tennis while evading bombing. That really brings a whole new sense of real life to me. When I used to practice tennis, all I cared about was the Cactus Cooler I was gonna buy from the vending machine when I got done. Man I’m glad I never had to worry about bombings. How’s that for a reality check.

(Image courtesy Ana’s Official Site)