Ana Ivanovic withdrew from the Madrid Open because of a knee injury, but expects to be fit in time to defend her French Open title.
The seventh-ranked Serb is struggling with inflammation in her right knee. Doctors have ordered her not to play for a week.
Ivanovic said in a statement Friday that the knee has bothered her since a Fed Cup match last month. She said, “It’s become more painful with each match, so I decided to go and see a specialist in Munich.”
Ivanovic says there is “no danger” of her missing the French Open, which begins May 24.
Fernando Verdasco is enjoying a career-best start to the year, but perhaps even more intriguing than his ascendance to No. 8 in the world is the Spanish heartthrob’s love life. The 25-year-old Verdasco, who counts players Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia among his exes, had Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki in his cheering section during a match in Indian Wells last month. And Verdasco apparently returned the favor, showing up to watch Wozniacki’s fourth-round victory over Urszula Radwanska. The duo was photographed together (albeit alongside Urszula’s big sister Agnieszka) at the K-Swiss player party in Indian Wells.
We have previously reported about the relationship between Ana Ivanovic and Fernando Verdasco and this time they have been out and about together.
It is good to see Ana and Fernando are just being open about their relationship. Ana has to be one of the best looking female tennis players on tour and Fernando is just Spanish.
Stay tuned for more photos and more information in the coming months as the Paps start to follow them. Oh and by the way they were watching Real Madrid play against Real Union.
French Open champion Ana Ivanovic and Polish number one Agnieszka Radwanska have called on their fellow players to band together and fight new rules that limit where they can play in 2009.
Although part of the WTA’s new Roadmap is designed to reduce the number of tournaments and shorten the season, it also dictates that top 10 players must compete in at least 10 of the 20 Premier events — previously known as Tier 1 and 2 tournaments — and the four grand slams.
All of the top 10 players must play the tournaments held at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing.
“We do have our voice and we have to come together,” Ivanovic said at the Linz Open. “The changes were made in the middle of the season and when you’re playing grand slams you don’t really want to think about next year’s schedule.
It has been reported by on the baseline that the 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic will be heading to the Tokyo tournament with a new weapon in her bag.
The very short lived world number 1 player will be playing with the new Yonex RQiS 1Tour XL. The stick itself looks much live every other racquet from Yonex, but obviously with some advances in product quality and design.
According to Ana Ivanovic’s website, the racquet is currently not available to the general public, but will be very soon. I dont think this is a racquet anyone will rush out and buy, just cause Ivanovic changed!
Name: Ana Ivanović
Country: Serbia
Birthdate: November 6, 1987
Birthplace: Belgrade, Serbia then SFR Yugoslavia
Residence: Basel, Switzerland
Plays: Right-handed with a double handed backhand
Height: 186 cm or 6ft 1in
Website: www.anaivanovic.com
Scouting: Ana Ivanovic is one of most promosing tennis players in the world, but she has only really lived up to expectation once and that was the 2008 French Open in which she was the champion. Apart from that Ana has a great serve and hands around the court. She has a very strong forehand and likes to play from the back of the court as much as possible. Her return of serve is also quite strong and she really going for the first shot.
However, she still seems to lack a fair bit of consistency in terms of days in days out. Thus, some days she can turn up on top form and the next day she doesnt even turn up. Additionally, Ana doesnt really seem comfortable when moving forward into the court and seems even more tentative when it comes to volleying.
