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NEW YORK — Ana Ivanovic punctuates just about everything she says with a winsome smile, especially during her news conferences.
The 20-year-old world No. 1 from Serbia lived through the NATO bombing in her native Belgrade in 1999, so her sunny disposition comes with a dose of having experienced harrowing times.
Ivanovic, who won 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 yesterday over Vera Dushevina of Russia in the first round of the U.S. Open, recalls taking shelter in a cellar with her family and taping the windows so the glass would not shatter if there was a hit.
She also remembers having a remarkably cavalier attitude about practising her tennis with bombs going off in the distance.
Some of that practice took place on two rudimentary courts in a cramped, abandoned swimming pool, which made chasing some cross-court shots dangerous.
Growing up in what was then Yugoslavia, she first had her interest in tennis piqued when she was 5 by watching compatriot Monica Seles on television and got her parents to sign her up for lessons advertised during the match.
In her war-torn junior days, it was difficult getting out of the country to go to tournaments. "Everyone used to think Serbs were bad people and I never felt welcome anywhere," she once said.
Her big break came when she was 14 and Swiss businessman Dan Holzman put up $500,000 in an interest-free loan to finance her development. That clearly has paid off, because she is now a multimillionaire and he is her manager.
The highlight of her junior career was being the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2004. As a professional, her first big title was in Montreal at the Rogers Cup in 2006.
Last year, she made her Grand Slam breakthrough, reaching the French Open final and almost taking an early 2-0 lead on the three-time champion at the time, Justine Henin. "Oh my God, don't panic now," she recalled thinking. "But the more I thought about it, the more I panicked." The final score was 6-1, 6-2 for the Belgian.
This year, she reached the final of the Australian Open (losing 7-5, 6-3 to Maria Sharapova) before winning her first Grand Slam title, defeating compatriot Jelena Jankovic with the No. 1 ranking on the line in the French Open semi-finals and Dinara Safina in the final.
Typical of the somewhat Pollyanna-ish Ivanovic and the more streetwise Jankovic, Ivanovic had no idea a win would get her the top ranking in that semi-final, while her opponent was only too aware.
Ivanovic's image as sweet and demure is accurate only to a certain point, at least according to her coach, Sven Groeneveld of the Netherlands. "She's a good-hearted person, but she has another side," he said yesterday. "We were actually talking about that yesterday. She's a Scorpion [Nov. 6] and if people push the wrong buttons, she will sting. She does have that side."
A third-round loss at Wimbledon to an in-form Zheng Jie of China and then a thumb problem that hampered her in Montreal and led to her withdrawal from the Olympics appear finally to be behind her after a sketchy win over Dushevina yesterday.
That came after flying to Italy for medical advice after Montreal, then to Beijing and then to Australia for more medical assessment before finally heading to New York.
After multiple magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray tests, she said, "They found a few cysts that were causing inflammation."
Working with fitness trainer Scott Byrnes of the United States for the past two years has made her a sleek, buff athlete and a more glamorous woman.
At 6 foot 1, she has a striking on-court presence, something that helped earn her 23rd place on the FHM magazine's 2008 list of the world's sexiest women.
While there once were apparently ill-founded rumours of a relationship with Tommy Robredo of Spain, few details exist about Ivanovic's romantic life.
She has known compatriot Novak Djokovic, No. 3 in the men's rankings, all though their childhoods, but their friendship is described as being like siblings.
But Ivanovic has undeniable allure. Yesterday, interviewed on court by USA Network, she was asked to do a fist pump because commentators Tracy Austin and John McEnroe thought that hers was "pretty."
She did it, and guess what? It actually was.
