Ana Ivanovic beats the drum for women's tennis

Oh yes, women's tennis, we had rather forgotten about that. In the rush to lionise Rafael Nadal, psychoanalyse Roger Federer and canonise Andy Murray, there has been a tendency to overlook how the other half has been getting on. Evidence that the women's tour pales in contrast to the men's is that its most prominent recent headline concerned the deranged father of Jelena Dokic allegedly threatening to “fire a rocket” at the Australian ambassador to Serbia because of his daughter's allegations of physical abuse.
In Rome this week, just to add to the theatre of the absurd, Serena Williams mocked the fact that she was not ranked No1 in the world - and was promptly dumped on her posterior by Patty Schnyder, who called her husband/coach on to the court to give her a pep talk when leading 5-0 in the final set. Before the Italian Open, the two previous high-profile tournaments in the United States were snaffled by Vera Zvonareva, from Russia, and Victoria Azarenka, from Belarus. The earth maintained a steady orbit.
In the BNP Paribas Open final in Indian Wells, California, in March, one all but ruined by powerful winds, Zvonareva defeated Ana Ivanovic in a torrid match and, watching from courtside, it began to dawn that not much had been seen of the Serb recently. Indeed, the most recent time she lifted a trophy was in the middle of October (about the same time as Federer) and since then results had not been up to scratch (much like Federer). But now the clay-court season is under way - pencilled in as the time when she needs to start making the right waves again.
Yet it all looks shaky, Ivanovic having lost a 4-0 lead in the final set in Rome in a crushing third-round defeat by Agnieszka Radwanska, of Poland - not an occasion to dine out on at Sabatini's, where Gabriela used to spend her evenings striving to ignore amorous suitors during the championships in the late 1980s.
Next week the 21-year-old Ivanovic - the 21st-century Sabatini - was scheduled to play the Mutua Madrileña Open in Madrid, a premier mandated event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, before an emotional return to Paris to defend her French Open title. It does not look as if she will be walking back into Roland Garros on confidence's cusp. A knee injury has forced her to withdraw from Madrid, which will cost her $250,000 (about £165,000) in bonus-pool payments, though she insists that she will be fit for the French Open.
Win or lose there, she will be exceedingly disarming. On the very pretty face of it, defeats do not get her down, but that is where you would misjudge her. Take it from Ivanovic and Craig Kardon, who coached Martina Navratilova to the last of her nine Wimbledon singles titles in 1990 and was brought into the Ivanovic clan in February, she takes defeat as badly as anyone, to the extent that Kardon has spent a lot of time trying to get her not to be so hard on herself.
“I have not adjusted that well to the clay yet and, as a professional athlete, that is what I need to do,” Ivanovic said. “But I have had a lot of different experiences in the past two years, having to cope when not feeling great, being injured as has happened again this week, being frustrated, losing patience with myself.
“Because I am a perfectionist, I had just assumed I would play perfectly all the time, but I have learnt that in those times I have to find a way to win and I am much more OK with that. I am very excited about what is around the corner, but I do need to stay in the moment.”
Ivanovic has played in the past two Paris finals, being thumped by Justine Henin in the first before returning last May and coping (just) with Dinara Safina, the Russian who was as choked by nerves as Ivanovic had been in 2007. As any first-time grand-slam winner discovers, the letdown can be as marked as the high of the triumph. Ivanovic returned to Belgrade after her victory in Paris and was so immersed in the heady celebrations that she lost her core.
“I did a lot of media and other activities in Serbia. I was completely drained and when I got to Wimbledon I thought, ‘OK, I can relax now,'” she said. “But I couldn't find my intensity at all. If I am in that position again, I have learnt that I need to do what is best for my game, not what people expect of me.
“I am a very emotional person in general and I get really fired up, especially in a competitive situation. I didn't know how to handle things before but it is important to realise that you are not going to be at the top of your game all the time. There are going to be setbacks and real champions adjust to that. You might lose, but you must never lose the belief in yourself. I have won the French, I have won big tournaments and I know I can do it again.”
The volatility of so many results in women's tennis is illustrated by the fact that since Federer became the men's No1 in February 2004, spending an extraordinary 237 weeks there before Nadal usurped him in August last year, there have been nine occupants of the women's pride of place. Ivanovic claims never to have been preoccupied by the rankings since she emerged as a real force and was unaware - until the press told her - that last spring's victory at Roland Garros coincided with her ascension to the top spot.
“All I can do is think about my game, to keep developing it and the ranking will take care of itself,” Ivanovic, now the world No7, said. “I just have to do my best in tournaments and focus on that. There is a lot of calmness in me now and Craig has definitely helped with that. I can still learn heaps, there are goals I want to achieve, but it is better to do that with peace of mind, working with someone I trust.”
Kardon was a good catch. Navratilova needed him for a youthful endorsement of her attacking game when others were challenging the concept and, as he says, he is more the American “hard-court serve-and-volley type of guy who specialises in how to make players more aggressive in their approach”. On the clay, relentless aggression is not always the best method.
“It is about being able to grind, to maintain a good mentality in the longer rallies,” he said. “Regardless of this week's injury, Ana is in great shape, so hats off to Scott [Byrnes, her physical trainer]. When I first saw her in Dubai in February, she and her game were in a state, but she has definitely solidified. She is very tough on herself, sometimes too tough. Scott and I have had to pull her in a little bit.
“Do we want to change things? Yes. Do we have goals in mind? Sure. And there is a stubbornness there, too, just like Martina had. What I have said to her is that champions do the ordinary things a bit better than anyone else. That is what she has to learn.”
Ana the Ordinary? There's not much of a future in that
Source:The times