Ana Ivanovic

Ana Ivanovic was recently voted the world’s most beautiful tennis player, however after a great start to the 2008 season, where she finished runner up here to Maria Sharapova, and then went on to win her first Grand Slam, when she took the title at the French Open, her form slipped badly. She had risen to take the number one spot in the world, but has since dropped down to number five. The 21 year old Serbian player had also reached the final at Roland Gaross in 2007 losing to Justine Henin. She was also a semi-finalist at the 2007 Wimbledon Championship and reached Round 4 in the US Open in 2007.

She has proven that she has an exciting all surface game, and will be amongst the Favourites in the to break her duck and go one better here this year. The betting has her as around a 33/1 shot in the Australian Open Odds to take the title this year.

Ana plays an attacking baseline game, relying on power, depth and placement of her forehand strokes. She has already earned a great reputation for her passing shots. Over the last two years she has worked tirelessly on her net play and has improved out of all proportion. She has a very good two-handed backhand, but when she can, she will always play the inside out forehand. Her serve sometimes lets her down and has often cost her important games. She serves forcefully, but not always accurately but she does have a good tendency to hit aces off her second serve. She has been known to win matches when her 1st serve percentage has been as low as 40%.

At present, Ana has won seven WTA Titles and has finished runner-up in three more. Five of these wins have come on hard court surfaces.