Out to have a great time

This year in Melbourne the crowds at the Australian Open adopted Ana Ivanovic as “Aussie Ana”, and by the end of the French Open the Parisian crowds, not the easiest to impress, had taken her to their hearts too. Now it seems only a matter of time before Wimbledon follows suit, writes Stephen Bierley.

Ana Ivanovic will not need any grey skies over SW19 to clear up before she puts on a happy face during Wimbledon fortnight, which begins on June 23. She simply loves everything about the tournament. “It’s the grass, it’s playing in white, it’s the Sunday off, it’s the rain.”

The rain? “Yes, the rain.” Ivanovic giggles. “I think some players think, ‘Oh no, it’s raining again.’ But they should try to enjoy it. You know, you sit there, you hang out.”

Recently, she was hanging out with the President of Serbia, having tea and waving to 10,000 fans gathered in the centre of Belgrade to see her lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen for them, just a couple of days after winning the French Open title in Paris, her inaugural Grand Slam triumph after two final defeats, at the Australian Open this year and at Roland Garros 12 months earlier.

Emotionally it took a huge amount out of her and it was of little surprise when she declined the invitation to play at Eastbourne, citing a minor niggle. “It’s the hardest part of the year with two Grand Slams so close to each other,” said Ivanovic.

She will be in London the week before Wimbledon, training and practising on the grass, perhaps catching a show and spending a little of the euro 1m (£780,000) she collected in the French capital for her 6-4, 6-3 win over Russia’s Dinara Safina. “London is a fashion city and like any girl, I love to shop. I go to Harrods and Harvey Nichols. I enjoy London a lot and I want to see some theatre and some shows. Last year I went to the concert in Wembley for Princess Diana, which was really nice,” Ivanovic said.

There is an infectious enthusiasm about everything Ivanovic does and talks about, as befits a 20-year-old at the beginning of an immensely exciting journey that has already rocketed her to No. 1 in the world. Last year she reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, fighting back from deficits in the fourth round and the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual champion, Venus Williams, the best grass-court player of the last decade. “I had a great time, playing for the first time on Centre Court. I have some great memories. I love all the traditions.

I enjoy that so much. It’s great to play tennis dressed all in white; you don’t get a chance to do that anywhere else. Back home they call tennis a sport that people must play dressed in white.”

Long gone are the days when she could walk around Belgrade and nobody would recognise her. “Everyone follows tennis, and everyone knows about me. If I’m on the street, people know straight away. People are looking.

“Some of the time when I’m in the car and stop at the lights, I look over at the next car and they are waving at me. It’s kind of nice that people are following me and supporting me but, on the other hand, you lose your private life.

“It can be difficult to have a quiet drink. I don’t go out too much to nightclubs but some of the time I like to go to dinner with my family or friends but it can be tricky when you get recognised. I was in a restaurant recently and they had live music and the band said, ‘We have Ana here with us’. I was thinking ‘Oh no.’ I was embarrassed,” Ivanovic said.

But despite her success and her concomitant wealth, together with her move from Belgrade to Basle, the birthplace of Roger Federer, Ivanovic clings tenaciously on to her long-time friendships. “All my friends are from back home and I’ve known them since I was young, so they know everything I’ve been through and the intensity, both mental and physical, I face during the slams. I think I have true friendships. Even if we don’t speak for weeks I still call and everything is good.”

It may not always be this easy. Ivanovic’s status has changed rapidly. Only a few years ago she was billeted at Surrey University during Wimbledon. “There was a group of us from Serbia, a few girls and a few boys.” Now she rents a house. “My family are there (her mother, Dragana, travels the world with her and is her “best friend”) and sometimes we cook in the house and sometimes we go out,” Ivanovic said.

In Paris Ivanovic, who has a deeply superstitious side to her nature, ate in the same Italian restaurant seven times, before each of her matches. “Not the same meal, though.” But she loves home cooking. “We have some traditional dishes that I miss when I’m away. The one I really like is Sarma. It’s sour cabbage and you fill it with rice and meat. You cook it in a tomato sauce and cook it for a long time.”

Appearances can be deceptive and this is true twofold in Ivanovic’s case. Sitting and chatting, a conversation punctuated with smiles and laughter, it is easy to forget the strength of will that has driven her to the top of her sport. Then, when she stands up, she is suddenly transformed from a gregarious, convivial young woman into the intimidating 6ft-plus athlete her opponents face.

The Russians and Eastern Europeans have blazed a trail through the old order, with the rest struggling to keep pace. The current women’s top 20 includes six Russians, two Serbs and one each from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Belarus and the Czech Republic, while the current crop of juniors has Romania to the fore. “Maybe it’s because we are more determined and really have to fight hard,” said Ivanovic.

The fact that Jelena Jankovic, the world No. 3, and Novak Djokovic, the Australian Open champion, have travelled the same road at the same time has been an obvious benefit to all three and other Serbian players are now tucking in behind. “It would have been a lot more difficult if it had just been me.

“We all share the burden. It’s great to have them around. We motivate each other. We make each other work harder. If one of us does well, we say, ‘I’m going to do well too.’ It’s healthy competition and we are all so young. We often get asked how it has happened. But we just don’t know.

“Tennis is really big in Serbia right now and it is changing the perception of our country. I think that, if there is something that brings people together, then it’s sport and music. For us it’s a great honour to be the ambassadors of our country and to present it in the best possible way because I know that these have been hard times for Serbia. When we travel people say to us, ‘It’s so dangerous in Serbia,’ and I say, ‘No, it’s not.’ People in Serbia are nice and friendly, communicative and open. Now I really think that, through us, people can be more open to Serbia as a country.”

A few years ago Ivanovic had to line up from dawn outside the embassy just to get a chance to get the visa to go to tournaments. “And then we wouldn’t have direct flights from Belgrade, so many times we had to travel to Budapest by car and then go from there. And at passport controls it was a nightmare. It would take forever.

“I can’t wait to go to the Olympics and represent my country. I get excited just talking about it.” And she will stay in the Olympic village. No hideaway hotel for her.

Ivanovic also, somehow, finds time to further her education. “I’m studying economics. I’m in the first year now, on the internet.

“I have exams but they are very flexible with them, so I can do them when I go home. I was really more interested in psychology, but I thought it would be too hard to combine with tennis, as both are very intense mentally. I think it’s very important to get a degree. Maybe when I have finished my career I will go back to do a degree in psychology as well,” she said.

For the coming weeks, though, her thoughts turn entirely towards the grass, save for those shopping trips. “It’s tough changing surfaces as it’s a totally different kind of movement but I think my game is suited to grass. I have a good volley,” Ivanovic said.

In Melbourne the crowds at the Open quickly adopted her this year as “Aussie Ana”, and by the end of the French Open the Parisian crowds, not the easiest to impress, had taken her to their hearts too. Now it seems only a matter of time before Wimbledon follows suit.