Ana Ivanovic - French Open Women's Tennis Players

Ana Ivanovic is one of a group of players from Serbia who are slowly creeping up to the top of both the WTA and ATP ranking ladders and the young French Open champion, who has claimed the number one spot for the meanwhile, has oodles of talent, but may lack a bit of mental toughness at times.

Lacks Mental Toughness

Ivanovic is one of those naturally talented athletes who do not need the services of a full time coach, but what she may need is a sports psychologist to assist with her lack of consistency and her inability to change her game plan or strategy in the middle of a match.

When she finds herself against the ropes, she seems to panic and lose concentration as was so very evident in her match against the veteran Frenchwoman, Nathalie Dechy, in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships in 2007. She did eventually win the match but after almost 3 and a half hours of exhausting play, where she very nearly gave it away on more than one occasion!

Ivanovic is an offensive baseliner and is reliant on placement, depth and power but her consistent winners are penetrating, flat forehand strokes with occasional topspin. She has worked hard on her play at the net, which has improved significantly and she often surprises her opponent with very well executed drops shots.

First Serve Percentage needs to be Improved

She does, however,  have a weak link and that is her powerful but unreliable serve. What is enlightening, though, is she still continues to win at the highest level with a first serve percentage of lower than 40% - can you imagine the lofty heights she could reach if she increased the number of first time successful serves!

Ana has already claimed 7 WTA titles including her French Open singles crown and she has shown she is certainly a force to be reckoned with on clay - two of her titles were on clay, her career win/loss record on clay is a very tidy 60-17 and her French Open record speaks volumes at 19-3.

Ivanovic is one of the youngest players in the top ten of the WTA ranking and she is the incumbent world number one and if she can sort out her ongoing injury woes and works hard on the mental aspect of her game, there is no reason why Ana Ivanovic will not be on all our lips for many years to come!