Ana Ivanovic - Serbian Tennis Sensation

Ana Ivanovic is a professional tennis player, born on November 6, 1987 in Belgrade, Serbia.

When she was only five, Ana started tennisafter seeing the sport on TV.

She asked her parents to take her to the local tennis school and she was given a small racket as a birthday present from her father shortly after. Her idol is legendary tennis player and fellow Yugoslavian Monica Seles, who she says is her main inspiration for wanting to be a tennis player.

Ana Ivanovic first caught the eye of the tennis world when she reached the final of the junior Wimbledon tournament in 2004, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. In 2004 she also went 26-0 on the challenger circuit, and won all 4 events that she entered, two of them as a challenger. Her first proffesional breakthrough occurred in October of 2004 when she took Venus Williams to two tiebreaks before losing 7-6(11) 7-6(6) in the second round of the Zurich Open in Zurich, Switzerland. She followed that up with a quarterfinal showing in Luxembourg the following week.

Ana Ivanovic is currently the 16th ranked player in the world, and at just 18, has already established herself as not only a star of the future, but a fan favorite. She is aiming to make it into the women's top 10 rankings during 2006 which many expect her to achieve.

Ana Ivanovic won her first career singles titles in 2005, as a qualifier, in Canberra, Australia, where she knocked out local favourite and 3rd seed Amelie Mauresmo in the 2005 French Open's third round, before falling to Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals.

Ana Ivanovic began 2006 by playing at the Hopman Cup with fellow Serbian Novak Đoković where the pair narrowly missed the final. However, Ana had strong performances and both Ana and Novak endeared themselves to many Australian fans with charming personalities and entertaining play. She then played in a Sydney tournament where she once again defeated Mauresmo before falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.

Ana Ivanovic plays right-handed with a two-handed backhand. She has a strong forehand and serves well.