sports stars: ana ivanovic Serbian tennis player

Early life
Ivanović's mother Dragana, a lawyer, supports her daughter during most of her matches. Her father Miroslav, a self-employed businessman, attends as many events as he possibly can. Ana has a younger brother, Milos, with whom she loves to play basketball.
Personal life
Aside from her tennis career, Ivanović also studies finance at a university in Belgrade and Spanish in her spare time.Her inspiration to begin playing was Monika Seleš, who at that time played for Yugoslavia.
On September 8, 2007, Ivanović became a UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia, alongside Aleksandar Đorđević, Jelena Janković and Emir Kusturica. She takes a special interest in the fields of education and child protection. Ivanović visited a primary school in Serbia during her inauguration and said that she is "also looking forward to going into the classroom and meeting many kids."
Ivanović picked up a racket at the age of five after watching Monica Seles, a fellow Yugoslav, on television. She started her career after memorizing the number of a local tennis clinic from an advertisement. At the time, she was forced to train during the morning to avoid bombardments. Later, she admitted that she trained in an abandoned swimming pool in the winter, as there were no other facilities. When she was 15, Ivanović spent four hours in the locker room crying after a defeat – the first that her new manager had watched. She thought that Dan Holzmann, the manager in question, would drop her, thinking that she was not good enough to become a professional tennis player. He has stayed her manager to this day.
2004
Ivanović reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament in 2004, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko.[10] In 2004, she went 26–0 on the ITF circuit, and won all five events that she entered, two of them as a qualifier. As a qualifier in Zürich, she overcame a 5–1 third set deficit along with two match points to defeat World no. 29 Tatiana Golovin. She then debuted in the qualifying draw of a Grand Slam at the 2004 US Open, where she was defeated by Lioudmila Skavronskaia after winning the first set 6–1. She eventually fell to a close loss, 6–1, 4–6, 5–7. Her first professional breakthrough occurred in the next match, when she took Venus Williams to two tiebreaks before losing in straight sets in the second round of the Zürich Open. She had held several set points in both sets. She followed up her run in Zürich with a quarterfinal showing at Luxembourg the next week.
2005
Equipment
Ivanović endorsed Nike apparel and shoes at the beginning of her professional career,[26] but at the beginning of 2006 switched to rival Adidas.[27] Ivanovic then signed a lifetime contract with the company. Ivanovic will become an Ambassador for Adidas once she retires from competitive tennis. She is believed to be the youngest athlete, male or female, to sign a contract of such longevity.[28] She started with the Wilson racquets, eventually using the nCode nBlade.[29] Since the beginning of 2008, Ivanović has used Yonex racquets. She previously used the RQiS 1 Tour XL 95, but at the beginning of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open 2010 in Cincinnati switched to a prototype version of a new Yonex racket.Ivanovic plays with the Yonex EZONE 100 model.
Playing style
Ivanović is an offensive baseliner who is notable for her aggressive play. In 2007 and 2008, Ivanović was regarded as one of the best competitors on the women's tour. After winning the 2008 French Open and becoming #1, Ivanović has endured a significant slump in form. Many critics attribute her loss in form to her lack of confidence and self-belief. At the 2010 Australian Open, Hall of Famer Martina Navratilova commented that, "while she has absolutely no confidence in herself, she still fights till the last point." Currently, she has made some improvements to her playing style since appointing a new coach in 2010. As a result, she had started to play with more confidence and was winning matches more consistently. Recently, however, an inexplicable loss of form and increased injury has sent Ivanovic back to the drawing board.
Serve
Ivanović's serve is a powerful weapon. She hit a 124.9 mph (201.0 km/h) serve at the French Open in 2007, the fifth fastest serve of all time on the WTA Tour.[31] As of late, however, her serve has become unreliable – mostly due to technical issues with her ball toss. The success of her ball toss is directly associated with her nerves. During the French Open final in 2007, Ivanović was overcome with nerves and her toss went astray. During Ivanović's slump in play in 2009, her serve became gradually less effective as her confidence diminished. Ana is now confident she has rectified these problems.
Groundstokes
Another one of Ivanović's strengths is her powerful forehand. A flat stroke, hit with not a lot of topspin which gives it its power[33], it has been considered to be one of the best forehands in the game.[34] Ivanović tends to hit more winners of this wing. Her backhand, although not as big as her forehand, has improved over the years. Ivanović's movement and net play were once considered to be her weaknesses, but they have both improved over the years. She is considered now to be considerably faster than when she started playing professional tennis.[citation needed]
Surfaces
Ivanović's best surface is the clay court, where her height allows her to strike clean winners off of high bouncing balls. Nonetheless, she is capable of performing well on hard and grass courts as well. When she launched her re-branded site during 2010, she stated in her bio that she likes all surfaces.