Ana Ivanovic made her Australian Open debut on Monday, resplendent in cerise and with the air of glamour we have come to expect from one of tennis’s most photographed women. The Serbian has been ranked world No.1 and is a Grand Slam champion after winning her first major title at Roland Garros last year, but for all that success and for all the beauty of the veneer, the seven months since that career-changing fortnight in Paris have been anything but easy.
It happens to some players when they enjoy the success they have been craving since childhood; a sort of hangover hits them after the glow of celebration fades, and Ivanovic seemed to down with a bad case of these post-Slam blues which she is only now beginning to shake off. Her 7-5 6-3 first round win over Germany’s Julia Goerges certainly suggested a lifting of the fog.
Ivanovic enjoyed a stellar 2008 until June, reaching the final here at the Australian Open before taking the honours in spectacular style in Paris, when the world fell in love with the 22-year-old and her rags-to-riches tale of going from playing in an empty swimming pool in war-torn Belgrade to taking one of her sport’s biggest prizes.
Grand Slam titles are supposed to increase a player’s self-belief, aren’t they? That, though, is too easy an assumption to make and belies the complex emotions of human nature and the demands placed on the mind and body by world-class tennis. Ivanovic seemed to experience such a potent combination of physical and emotional exhaustion that the self-belief seemed to drain out of her the moment she lifted the trophy - as the world’s new No.1 - after beating Dinara Safina on Court Philippe Chatrier on that Parisian spring afternoon.
She looked spent at Wimbledon just over two weeks’ later, eventually succumbing in the third round when faced with an inspired performance from Jie Zheng of China, and that defeat proved to be the beginning of a period of negative momentum for the Serbian. She failed to win back-to-back matches in her next five events as she struggled with a niggling thumb injury which kept her out of the Olympics and blighted her US Open campaign, which ended with defeat to qualifier Julie Coin in the second round. As the year moved into its twilight, however, she began to rally and she finished the year strongly with a semi-final showing at the WTA Tour event in Zurich and victory the following week in Linz. This season began in a similar vein when she reached the quarter-finals of the inaugural Brisbane International only to meet a resurgent Amelie Mauresmo.
A close look at Ivanovic’s career shows her as a player who requires time to adjust to each new achievement. She was in the top 20 for a while before moving into the top 10, and from there she remained on a plateau until making a breakthrough at a Grand Slam by reaching the final of Roland Garros 2007. That timeline suggested that she simply required some time to adjust to being a Grand Slam champion before taking her next step forward, which should give cause for optimism heading into this Australian Open. In a relatively open women’s draw, she is as well-equipped as anyone to take the title.
It would also be harsh on Ivanovic to suggest that last year’s slump – a relative term given the success which preceded it – was purely a result of mental struggle. The thumb injury affected the function of her right arm and shoulder and with it her serve, one of the bedrocks of her game. She seems to have modified her serving motion slightly, presumably to prevent any further physical issues. While her rather meagre first serve percentage against Goerges – 51 per cent – suggests teething problems, it might just be a question of time before Ivanovic adjusts and is then ready to march forward once more.
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