Did you know?
Ana practiced in an empty swimming pool in her native Serbia.

Ana has won 7 WTA singles titles including a Grand Slam (Roland Garros in 2008).

Ana started playing tennis at age 5, inspired by Monica Seles, who is from the same country.

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2008: A year in review
11/15/08

2008 was an amazing year in Ana Ivanovic's career.

She won her first grand slam title and reached the top of women's ranking. She definitely reaffirmed herself as one of the top stars in the game.

But all of those achievement also generated very high expectations on her, and then her results dissapointed many.

In balance, the good greatly outweight the bads and 2008 has been without a doubt Ana's best year in the tour.

Ana's season officially started in Sydney, Australia. She reached the semifinals in this tournament.

Then she played the first grand slam of the year, the Australian Open. Here Ana reached her second grand slam final where she lost to Maria Sharapova. Despite the loss, there was a positive note in the fact that Ana played a lot better than she did in her first grand slam final in Roland Garros the previous year.

After early losses in Dubai and Doha, Ana went to the United States and won Indian Wells, one of the most important events outside of the grand slams. It was at the time Ana's biggest win.

Then Ana had an early loss in Miami, and somehow bad results in the clay season, losing in the semifinals in Berlin, where she was the defending champion, and her first match in Rome.

But in was in Paris where Ana found her best form. She breezed through to the semifinals without dropping a set, she only lost one set to Jankovic in the next round and then easily disposed of her opponent in the final, Dinara Safina, to win her first grand slam title. With that win, Ana reached the top of the WTA ranking.

With the preasure of being a grand slam winner and world's number 1, Ana performed poorly in Wimbledon, losing in the third round to China's Jie Zheng.

She went to play Montreal with a thumb injury that seriously affected her ability to hit the ball and lost eary. The injury forced Ana to pull out of the Olympics in Beijing, and went to the US Open without preparation and lost early to a qualifier.

After a string of bad losses in Tokyo, Beijing and Moscow, Ana finally found some form in Zurich, where she lost to Venus Williams in the semis, but not without a fight.

Ana won a tournament in Linz the next week and it looked as her form was finally coming back.

Bad luck striked again in the WTA Championships in Doha. Ana was affected by a stomach virus and lost her first two round robin matches.

Feeling ill and with no chances to qualify, Ana pulled out of her last match.

Ivanovic Wins Diamond Aces
11/08/08
Ana Ivanovic

Ana has won the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour ACES Award because of the off-court promotional activities she underwent throughout the season.

The award is a result of a season long race among WTA players to determine who has contributed the most to promote women's tennis.

Congratulations Ana!

DOHA, Qatar - Ana Ivanovic has claimed the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour ACES Award for the first time in her career by virtue of an impressive push of off-court promotional activities at the end of the season-long ACES Race. The award is given to the player who consistently goes above and beyond to promote the sport of women's tennis to fans, media, in the community and beyond.

"I'm very happy to win this fun competition," Ivanovic said. "Being a professional tennis player is about a lot more than just hitting tennis balls and winning matches. The off-court side of things is also very important, and it's essential that we as athletes do what we can to promote the sport. There have been a lot of enjoyable ACES activities this year. I always enjoy meeting fans, sponsors and other guests when I'm at tournaments. Two of my most enjoyable activities this year were playing doubles with some amateur players in Tokyo and the photo shoot we did in Dubai."

"Ana is not only an incredible athlete and champion, but also a player who has earned the respect and admiration of fans, media and sponsors by continuously giving back," said Larry Scott, Chairman & CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. "Throughout the 2008 season, Ana has given of herself selflessly and been a true ambassador in promoting our sport."

"Ana has made a significant effort to promote women's tennis this year and it gives me great pleasure to present her with this award during the Sony Ericsson Championships," said Aldo Liguori, CVP and Global Head of Communications and PR, Sony Ericsson. "It's great to see some very strong contenders for the 2008 ACES Award and to recognise the players who are so dedicated and passionate towards promoting women's tennis to fans and new audiences."

This year marked the second season in a row that a point weighted system was used to award each of the off-court activities performed by players at Tour events. After each event, the off-court contributions of each player are measured and the ACES Race standings are published on sonyericssonwtatour.com.

The following is a breakdown of the players who amassed the most points during the 2008 season for ACES activities:

1. Ivanovic, Ana (595)
2. Jankovic, Jelena (565)
3. Williams, Serena (345)
4. Chakvetadze, Anna (315)
Dementieva, Elena (315)
Hantuchova, Daniela (315)
7. Kuznetsova, Svetlana (265)
8. Williams, Venus (245)
9. Schnyder, Patty (240)
10. Petrova, Nadia (230)

The ACES award was first introduced in 1995, in memory of former Tour CEO Jerry Diamond. Since then eight players have won the award, namely Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, Gabriela Sabatini, Amanda Coetzer, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Hingis, Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ivanovic.

Ana pulls out of her last match in Doha
11/07/08
Ana Ivanovic

Ana pulled out of her remaining round robin match against Svetlana Kuznetsova due to a stomach virus that has been affecting her the whole tournament.

The match was not too important. Both Kuznetsova and Ana were already unable to qualify for the semis, the only meaning of this match was to determine who finished 3rd and 4th in the group. The only consequence of that is the amount of ranking points and prize money awarded.

The round robin format is completely inadequate for tennis, it has never worked well since it was started. Often some players have already qualified or have been already eliminated by the time the third round is played and obviously they won't give their best effort.

It is also a shame that the WTA forces player to play or at least be around, even if they are injured or ill. Why would otherwise Ana play two matches while suffering from a stomach virus? The WTA only cares about having matches without any concern for the quality of them and they don't care at all about the players.

The WTA was created to defend the players, it's sad to see what it has become.

Happy birthday Ana!
11/06/08
Ana Ivanovic

Today is Ana's birthday, she turns 21!!!

Congratulations Ana, we hope you have had a great day.

You have accomplished so much already, and have a lot of time ahead to keep achieving success, on and off court!

Ana officially out of Doha
11/06/08
Ana Ivanovic

As a result of Jelena Jankovic winning her match against Kuznetsova. Ana now cannot qualify for the semifinals.

At best, Ana can end the round robin with one win if she beats Kuznetsova, but both Zvonareva and Jankovic already have two wins each, so Ana's match against Kuznetsova will only define who finishes 3rd and 4th in the group, it does matter for the rankings and the prize money but neither of them can qualify.

In fact, there is a very small chance for Ana to play the semis, so unlikely that is not even worth considering but, if Ana wins her match and either Jankovic or Zvonareva is forced to withdraw, then Ana would take her place.

But most likely, Ana will officially end her season tomorrow.

Ana nearly out of the WTA Championships
11/05/08
Ana Ivanovic

Ana lost today a marathon match against Vera Zvonareva of Russia 3-6 7-6(5) 4-6.

Although Ana had some good shots, she was inconsistent and while she was able to challenge Zvonareva's serve, had problems with her own.

She only played relatively well in the second set and took a 5-2 lead, but even then she let her opponent come back and had to define it in a tiebreak.

However, there was a good reason for Ana's poor play, apparently she's been affected by a virus and had been unable to eat properly in the past two days. Ana needed treatment during her first match and again today, because she felt dizy. She had her breathing tested and Ana said that worried her and hampered her concentration even further.

The end result is that Ana is in a very precarious situation to qualify. A lot of things have to happen.

She needs to beat Kuznetsova and needs Jankovic to lose her next two matches to Zvonareva and Kuznetsova. That way Zvonareva would qualify with 3 wins while Ana, Jankovic and Kuznetsova would have a win each.

If that's the case, the positions are defined by sets differential and if there is still a tie either by who won the match or if there are more than one played still tied by games differential.

Ana loses to Jankovic in Doha
11/04/08
Ana Ivanovic

Ana lost her opening round robin match againt Jelena Jankovic 3-6 4-6.

Ana was affected by the humidity and had to call a medical time out in the second set due to dehydratation.

But that wasn't the reason why he lost the match. Ana had trouble finding her rhytm against a consistent opponent. She was broken early in the first set and although she broke back, she was broken again in the next game.

Ana was broken again early in the second set and was unable to come back from that.

There is still a strong chance Ana can qualify, depending on other results. If she manages to win her next two matches she very likely will qualify for the semis, but she definitely needs to play better than she did today.

Tomorrow Ana will face Vera Zvonareva of Russia. Ana leads the head-to-head 4-2 and has won the last meeting between the two in the final in Linz.

Last Tournament
Sony Ericsson Championships

Round Robin - Singles - Seed: 4
November 4 - November 7, 2008

RR1	lost	Jelena Jankovic	3-6 4-6
RR2	lost	Vera Zvonareva	3-6 7-6 4-6

Next Tournaments

01/05/09	Brisbane
01/19/09	Australian Open

Rankings

Singles: 5 Points: 3457

Weeks at # 1: 12

Prize Money
2008: $2,738,390.00
Career: $5,903,547.00