Ana Ivanovic

Ana Schweinsteiger (née Ivanović; born 6 November 1987) is a Serbian former world No. 1 tennis player.

Her breakthrough came at the 2004 Zurich Open, where she qualified and was narrowly beaten by Venus Williams in the second round in two tiebreak sets.

By the age of 18, Ivanovic had already defeated established players such as Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova, Vera Zvonareva and Amélie Mauresmo.

Ivanovic was known for her aggressive style of play and impressive forehand, described by Petrova as "the best out there."

In 2004, she went 26–0 on the ITF Women's Circuit, and won all five events that she entered, two of them as a qualifier.

As a qualifier in Zurich, 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 major at the US Open, where she was defeated by Lioudmila Skavronskaia after winning the first set 6–1 and having two match points in the third set.

Her first notable breakthrough occurred in the next tournament, when she took Venus Williams to two tiebreaks, before losing in straight sets in the second round of the Zurich Open.

She had held several set points in both sets.

She followed up her run in Zurich with a quarterfinal showing at Luxembourg the next week.

Ivanovic won her first career singles title early in the year at the Canberra International, after defeating Melinda Czink in the final.

Her ranking continued to rise after wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova in Miami, Nadia Petrova also in Miami, and Vera Zvonareva in Warsaw, all of whom were top-10 players.

Ivanovic lost to Amélie Mauresmo at the Australian Open in the third round, at Doha in the third round after holding a 6–2, 2–0 lead, and at the Miami Masters in the quarterfinals.

She was also the runner-up at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open, losing to Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova respectively.

She qualified for the year-end WTA Tour Championships three times, in 2007, 2008 and 2014 and won the year-end WTA Tournament of Champions twice, in 2010 and 2011.

She claimed the top ranking after winning the 2008 French Open, and held the position for a total of 12 weeks.

Ivanovic won 15 WTA Tour singles titles, including a Grand Slam singles title at the French Open in 2008.

Ivanovic's struggles after winning the 2008 French Open were well documented.

After that victory, she was overwhelmed by attention and endured an ongoing period of reduced success, failing to make a Grand Slam quarterfinal in her subsequent 17 Grand Slam tournaments, and dropping as low as No. 65 in the rankings during July 2010.

In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time and was also included on the list of "Top 100 Greatest Players Ever" (male and female combined) by reporter Matthew Cronin.

In 2012, Ivanovic reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since her French Open victory at the 2012 US Open, thereby achieving the feat of reaching the quarterfinals at all four Grand Slam tournaments, and finished with a year-end top 15 ranking for the first time since 2008.

In 2014, Ivanovic enjoyed a resurgence, beginning with her victory in the Auckland Open, her first singles title in over two years, before going on to win the Monterrey Open, Aegon Classic and the Pan Pacific Open.

She qualified for competition in the WTA Tour Championships and secured a year-end ranking of No. 5, signifying her return to the world's elite.

During this time, she earned over $15.5 million in prize money, which is the 25th highest in the all-time rankings.

In 2015, Ivanovic made it to the semifinals of a major for the first time in seven years at the French Open.

In late December 2016, she announced her retirement, citing being no longer able to perform to a high standard as a major factor.

Ivanovic (Ана Ивановић / Ana Ivanović, ) was born in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia.

Her mother, Dragana, a lawyer, has been court-side during most of her matches.

Her father Miroslav, a self-employed businessman, attended as many events as he possibly could.

Ivanovic has a younger brother, Miloš, with whom she loved to play basketball.

Ivanovic first 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 telephone number of a local tennis clinic from an advertisement.

During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, 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 no tennis facilities were available.

At 13 she moved to train in Basel, Switzerland, because of the better training facilities and coaching.

Manager Dan Holzmann was living in Basel, and Ana and her mother moved to Switzerland when she signed an agreement with the Swiss entrepreneur.

When she was 15, Ivanovic spent four hours in a locker room crying after a defeat – the first that her new manager had witnessed.

She thought that Dan Holzmann would abandon her, thinking she wouldn't be good enough to become a professional tennis player.

However, he remained her manager throughout her career.

Ivanovic reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko.