Ana Ivanovic: Brimming with confidence

Ana Ivanovic celebrates winning her Australian Open match against Serena Williams

‘’I’m more forward in my opinions and the decisions I have to take. You know, I really now am confident more about those decisions, and also the way everything is. I can be more mature player on the court.’’ – Ana Ivanovic.

Not many players can afford to speak about maturity and burgeoning confidence before facing the World No. 1 Serena Williams and definitely not if you’ve never even won a set off her. But Ana Ivanovic delivered the unthinkable today, backing up her words with spot-on accuracy and perfection almost.

Not many had given her a realistic chance of pulling off this stunner. A set would be a generous gift, but a whole match was surely a distant dream. So much so, that when Ana talked spiritedly about having beaten the elder Williams sister Venus in the Auckland final recently, Twitter broke out into delirious laughter with people claiming that facing Serena was a different affair altogether.

Perhaps we had misunderstood Ana or perhaps we had failed to see the inner spark that was already burning bright within her. But were we too wrong in not putting our trust and faith in a player who had shown so much promise and had repeatedly failed to justify her fans’ trust in her? For Ana Ivanovic’s eye-popping ascension and her fall from grace within the blink of an eye is perhaps one of the most well-known facts in tennis today.

Back in 2007, when she made her first Grand Slam final at the age of 19, the bubbly and vivacious Serbian with the million-dollar looks and a fiery forehand had captured the imagination of the tennis domain. She was deemed the next big thing and she delivered instantly. Beating higher-ranked players at will and with flair, Ivanovic was the one doing the talking as to who would take over the mantle after the likes of the Belgians and the Williams sisters.

There wasn’t any doubt that she had Grand-Slam winning talent and it was soon validated when she clinched the 2008 French Open and climbed to the top of the rankings. If the lanky Serb’s rise to fame was spectacular, her downfall was equally stunning. Blighted by injuries and illness, Ana couldn’t match up to her Slam-winning performance in the latter half of 2008 and won just one more title. And it just went downhill from there.

Was it complacency or was it simply putting pressure on herself to deliver according to the expectations? Hard to exactly pin-point but Ana’s troubles were getting more and more complicated with frequent coaching changes, fitness issues and a glaring lack of confidence in her matches. She just couldn’t find the right solution that would act as a panacea for all her problems.

And there we watched hopelessly as Ana, the bundle of talent that she was, started dropping inexorably in the rankings and was out of the top 60 in 2010. Even though she did show a slight resurgence, she couldn’t sustain it for longer periods of time; rivals whom she could beat with élan would turn the tables on her and Ana would cave in meekly.

She would be a dismal picture of jangling nerves on the court with the wayward ball tosses and misfiring groundstrokes. Since 2008 she has managed to win just four more titles and never even reached a Grand Slam quarter-final until the 2012 US Open.

But after five years in the doldrums and struggling to find stability, the 26-year-old finally seems to have found what was missing – her self-belief. She brought in a change in her support system and resorted to Serbian coaches, Nemanja Kontic and Zlatko Novkovic. With a brand new support staff Ana has learnt from her past mistakes and is looking to channelize the positivity into her game and attitude on the court. With a leaner and fitter body, the former World No. 1 is ready to attack. And the results are coming thick and fast.

She won her first title in more than two years in Auckland and has declared her intentions of wanting to be back in the elite eight. Coming into the Australian Open, she has maintained her sizzling form and against Samantha Stosur, she gave a glimpse of the Ana Ivanovic who isn’t bothered even when the odds are against her.

Against Serena today, that was evident even more. She looked free for the first time in many years, motivating herself to fight till the last point and thoroughly enjoying the pressure. There wasn’t any nervousness or teary eyes, not even the countless ear-splitting ‘Ajde’s. She looked poised and equanimous and her occasional smiles evidenced how much she was loving the spotlight and the big stage – something that had been missing for so long.

It was the Ana Ivanovic of old, the one that was supposed to be a consistent threat to all the top stars. It was the Ana Ivanovic that we had yearned to see for years but were denied time and again.

Perhaps she herself says it the best – ‘’I’m really happy with the way things are going, just with my team I really have good relationship and good time, you know. I feel I worked so hard and I know what I’m doing on the court. So that definitely helps me relax. Just more embrace the moment.’’

Yes, Ana just embrace the moment and keep marching on. It’s so nice to see you competing like you should.