Week 3. Australian Open - 2nd round match.

And so it ends...

Well, even to start this new article is difficult, let alone trying to actually say something about last night's match. And quite frankly, what good will it do... we all know how she played and why she lost. So I'm not gonna talk about the way she played yesterday, but about the way Ana Ivanovic is currently throwing away everything she ever was as a tennis player. This loss goes right through my heart and every Ana-loving-heart I think.

In my last blog I indicated that I was glad that Ana could encounter a tennis player, who actually hits the ball instead of all those horrible slices. How ignorant of me....

Let me get things straight first. I love Ana and the way she plays. There's not a tennis player in the world whom I would rather be a fan of than Ana. I fell in love with her game and especially the way she fights on a court. That will never, ever change!!! The truth is that I cannot help Ana out of this crisis (cause it's a crisis for sure). If I could, I would, but I can't. If someone would say to me that the reason Ana's losing is because I'm watching every single match she plays, I would immediately stop watching Ana's matches. Unfortunately that's not the problem I'm afraid.

We all know by now that Ana has serious mental issues. Once she gets on that court she puts so much pressure on herself, that's it's impossible for every human being to perform well. There's is absolutely NOTHING wrong with her tennis game in my opinion. She can hit every single shot there is in the game of tennis. Serve, forehand, backhand (slice), volley's, dropshots, lobs, she can hit them all. Ana's problem is in her head. That's it, nothing else. Do not tell me that throwing a ball up in the air to hit a decent serve is something that can be practiced. We are talking about throwing a ball 3 meters up in the air, people!!! It has got nothing to do with her tennis abilities, but everything with her mental abilities.

I cannot help Ana, but a psychiatrist can. She should get one ASAP in my opinion. There's nothing wrong with that, the greatest sportspeople in the world have visited psychiatrists and it helped them overcome their mental issues. And if that doesn't help, try something else. Take up yoga, try acupuncture, but DO SOMETHING. She cannot do this on her own and I know how stubborn Ana can be, but this is something she needs help with. It's tearing her game apart and it's making her lose her fun in tennis.

Seeing Ana win Roland Garros (and beating JJ on the way) was one of the best moments in my life. But I'm starting to think whether it would have been better if she failed her mission to win in Paris. Maybe then JJ or Safina would have been the ones who were 21th in the world and struggling with everything single shot.

I'm glad Ana is more openly talking about her mental problems cause even a blind person sees that now. Ana's game was one of the best in the world, cause she didn't think about every shot she made. She used to whack every, single ball as hard as she could when she was given the chance. It was like routine, it went on the auto-pilot. Tactical plans are of no use to Ana at this stage. Someone in her team should stand up and say: "listen Ana, every time you get a chance to hit a forehand down the line or cross-court, you go for it, don't think, just hit!!!" There's no way that Ana can't do that, cause like I said, she the ABILITY to hit every single shot there is. She "just" needs to do it.

Concluded: I haven't given up on her yet and I probably never will. It's still a very long season and I think she should just not care anymore about her ranking, she'll stay top 30 anyway, even with this kind of tennis, cause Dulko is 36 or so in the world and she should have beaten her yesterday even with her horrible performance. She has got nothing to lose this year. I would much rather see Ana lose 10% of her tennis abilities and gain 50% mental strenght than the other way around. IF (and only IF) that happens she has a chance to become the player she once was. The so called "old Ana".

Week 3. Australian Open - 1st round match.

A good warm-up.

As promised, my report of Ana's first round match against Shanay Perry from the USA, which beforehand was titled as: "this should be an easy one".

Ana was up first on Margaret Court Arena, which was pretty crowded for this time of day. Ana appeared in a truly wonderfull new outfit, which suited her perfectly, but I'm not to discuss fashion, so I'll drop that subject!!

Ana got off to a good enough start, keeping her first 2 servicegames with ease and trying to break Perry early on. She had 2 BP's in the 2nd game, but she wasted them. She broke Perry in the 4th game though, leading 3-1, but got a re-break right after.

A very long 6th game, proved to be vital in this first set, Ana had some BP's, Perry had a lot of gamepoints, but eventually Ana broke Perry to lead 4-2. She held her own serve with easy and broke Perry again who didn't seem to believe that she any chance whatsoever against Ana. First set, 6-2, good enough tennis, nothing special to report.

Ana raced to a 5-1 lead in that 2nd set and should have closed it out, but she didn't. As "usual" Ana started to think about what she was doing, which was playing rather good tennis up until that point, but somehow closing the match on her own serve is something scary for Ana. Her ball-toss was suddenly all over the place again, she wasn't being aggressive anymore and she started to make some UE's. Perry made a re-break and even made it 5-3. Thankfully Ana woke up in time and closed out the match 6-3.

All in all it was an average match. It wasn't great from Ana's side, but that wasn't needed against a very mediocre player. Fact is that Ana hates to play against players who have a sliced backhand. She was lured into making an error in the beginning of the first set, but she managed to stay quite patient after that.

That's something that has to be considered as positive. Ana usually rushes when she's given those low sliced backhands (just remember her match against JuJu), but she was really patient after 4 or 5 games and set up some beautiful points, with some good volleying at the net at times.

Conclusion: weird opponent, first match of the tournament, serve% was ok, some good shots, some good dropshots, glad to have won in 2 straight sets I guess. Of course she needs to step it up a bit in her next match against Dulko, but I guess it's only natural that she doesn't play her best tennis in a first round match, so I'm optimistic for her 2nd round match!!!

More to come after her 2nd round match. Cya then!!!

Week 2. Ready to rumble!!!

And so it begins...

We all know that Ana's not keen on looking far into the draw, but she had to this time, cause she actually made the draw alongside tennis legend John McEnroe. But first things first, let's summarize this 2nd week of tennis.

1 week before the start of the Australian Open there were 2 preparation tournaments: in Sydney and in Hobart. For the 2nd time in a row Elena Dementieva won in Sydney, beating a slightly injured Serena Williams 63 62. In Hobart Alona Bondarenko managed to hold off Shahar Peer in the final, beating the Israelian 62 64.

Although I'm sure Elena was happy with her victory in Sydney, the draw of the 1st GS of the season probably influenced her good mood, cause she's to face Justine Henin in the 2nd round. Henin has some tough matches coming up, with a first round match against countrywoman Flipkens, which ended in 64 63, but there's also another possible clash in the 1/8 finals against Yanina Wickmayer, who fought off Romanian Dulgheru, winning it 10-8 in the 3rd set. And of course, looking even further in to the draw, Henin could face her rival (cause I still think they're rivals, eventhough they don't show it), Kim Clijsters in the QF.

First upset of the tournament: Miss Sharapova was beaten by Miss Kirilenko in 3 sets, after a truly horrible display of tennis. In my opinion, Sharapova would have been better prepared if she'd played a REAL tournament instead of 2 exhibitions.

What about Ana's side of the draw? Well, she's 20th seed so it's only natural that you're going to face a higher ranking player in the 3rd round, but she could have drawn a lot worse, cause Bepa isn't exactly in the best shape of her life atm, with some minor injuries. Guess Scott (who's dearly missed btw) has some work to do there!!! Anyway, let's just look at it match by match and that says that Ana has to face Shanay Perry in her first round. A difficult opponent in my opinion, who knows how to play the game, a good test for Ana early on!!!

For the ones who didn't know it yet: Ana will play at 11am Melbourne time, that's 1 am CET!!!

Because it's GS season atm, I'll be back tomorrow again with a match report about Ana's first round match, hopefully it will be a happy one!!! AJDE ANCI!!!

Cya tomorrow!!!

Week 1. Brisbane International.

Blessed and cursed at the same time.

At last 2010 arrived, as an Ana fan you're most definitely glad 2009 is over!! But, no time to look back as Ana headed to Brisbane for her first tournament in 3 months. Expectation: none whatsoever actually. Of course, you look at the draw and you see a possible clash in the semi's against Henin, but if there's one thing we learned in 2009 is that we shouldn't look ahead. And so we didn't cause Ana's first round match was tough enough as it was, against home favorite Jelena Dokic. Ana won though, 75 16 63.

Second round: vs. Bacsinszky, another 3 set victory, 62 26 64. In all honesty, it wasn't good at all, but 2 straight victories in a row was a long time ago, so at least that was something positive from this match. I think it gave Ana some confidence, to know that she can still win 2 matches in a row. Quarterfinal: vs. Pavlyuchenkova, seen as a big talent on the Tour, but finally (yes, FINALLY), we saw glimpses of the old Ana. She raced through the first set, 6-2, had a 4-0 lead in the 2nd, but Pavs was not ready to give up yet. She broke Ana at 5-3 and even lead 5-6, to serve it out for (yet again) a 3rd set. Once again, we saw glimpses of the old Ana, not when it comes to tennis, but more when it comes to guts. Trailing 1-4 in the tiebreaker, she played like a topplayer should play (with guts) and she showed us something we hadn't seen in a long time: mental strenght.

Her match we all looked forward to against Henin, turned out to be one-sided. Henin played her best tennis and thrashed Ana 36 26. Did we expect something more from Ana? Yes, of course, but there are definitely plenty of things that we should give her credit for. I think we saw glimpses of the old Ana, especially in her match against Pavs and Henin. Her forehand is clearly her easiest and best shot and IF she serves well, she can be very dangerous.

Unfortunately her serve isn't consistent yet, mostly cause of that... well... you know... that ball toss... And what clearly showed is that Ana's not the best tactician there is. Henin did everything right in her match against Ana. She served to her backhand, she sliced to her backhand and she attacked on her backhand. Ana, on the other hand, attacked whenever she could and whenever she was lured into attacking by Henin. Granted, Sven wasn't there to coach her, but we will never know how much it would have mattered.

What is the meaning of my title, you ask? Well, we are not only blessed and cursed to be Ana's fan, cause she can play unbelievably well and unbelievably bad, but we were kinda blessed and cursed this week as well. Finally she won some matches in a row again and we've gotten some hope from her matches that she can be the Ana of 2008. But then again, there's this little voice saying: she's not there yet. She's still got a long road ahead of her and it certainly will not come overnight.

All in all, it will be a matter of months instead of a matter of years as some critics are saying. For Ana and for us it's a good start of the year, a semi-final in her first tournament in 3 months is more than we might have expected... or isn't it...

Ow and Kim won in a great final against Justine, 7-6 (6) in the decisive set!!!

Welcome!!

Hello everyone,

first of all of course I would like to welcome you to my blog. I don't really know why I started this blog, cause I'm not much of a writer, but somehow I found the need to start one about my (and maybe your) favorite tennis player, Ana Ivanovic.

Some of you might know me from the Ana Ivanovic forum. Together with a team of 7 we moderate it and of course our goal is to make it the best tennis player forum there is. One thing's for sure tho, if you're an Ana-fan, that's the place to be!!!

Anyway, my goal is to write something about Ana (and her performances) every week, but of course if she doesn't play you can still expect a small 'article' (sounds professional eh? :D), but not as large as when she plays tournaments.

It's pretty obvious that you might not agree with me all the time, as I'm writing from a big fan's point of view and I might not always be as objective as I should be, but I'm only human, so bear with me on that :)

Hope you will enjoy this blog and feel free to respond to the blogs I make!!!