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Ivanovic sings herself into Top 10; prospering under GroeneveldMyskina will play French; Nadal unstoppable
The 19-year-old Serb was trying to relax in her Berlin hotel in readiness for her final of the German Open. She didn’t know whom she would be facing, as Justine Henin and Svetlana Kuznetsova hadn’t finished their semifinal. But she did sense that Serbia’s first victory in the contest for Europe’s best pop song of the year (sic) was a good omen for her. And so it proved. Kuznetsova had posted only her second win over Henin in 16 matches with a 6-4 final set that took advantage of Henin’s mental fatigue at a seemingly endless run of rain breaks. Ivanovic came back from an awful first set, playing through the pain of an ankle injury to notch up her first title on clay with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) victory. If the German Open is often a good guide to who will win the Roland Garros, it’s probably not this year. But it should be a good guide to who is soon going to be threatening the established elite who should decide this year’s French Open. Ivanovic makes no secret of the fact that she’s keen to get to No 1. She won’t set a timetable for it, pursuing instead the refreshing attitude that she’s just enjoying her tennis. But she has everything going for her. She has a strong body, good technique (except perhaps when she’s pushed wide), and this week has begun working with a coach with a proven pedigree, Sven Groeneveld, the man who steered the powerful but unsubtle Mary Pierce to Grand Slam success. Groeneveld worked with Ivanovic last year at a couple of tournaments, but will be with her on an experimental basis for the rest of the clay-court season. There is no firm arrangement yet, but Groeneveld seems the right man for Ivanovic at present. “She has no favorite surface,” the Dutchman says, “and I want to keep it that way. She has the game to play on every surface. My job this past week was just to make sure she was in the right frame of mind, and it worked well.” Ivanovic refused to go over the top about her win in Berlin, nor would she compare it with her other Tier I title from Montreal last August. “It’s all little steps,” she says. “It was a step when I played Venus [Williams] in Zurich [when she was just 16], it was a step when I beat Amelie Mauresmo at the French Open two years ago. It was a step when I won Montreal, and it’s a step here.” Ivanovic refuses to get too excited about the French Open either, where she prefers to see herself as a dangerous floater. “Maybe I now have a little more expectation for myself,” she said, “but I still want to enjoy it and not put too much pressure on myself. I’ve just had a good preparation, I feel physically fit, and I have good chances in Paris, but I don’t want to think too much in front.” Never mind the Eurovision Song Contest – Serbia has been doing well enough in tennis without the need for additional help. Jelena Jankovic still leads the women’s race; Novak Djokovic is the biggest riser on the men’s tour; with her Berlin title, Ivanovic is now a member of the Top 8. And she revealed after beating Kuznetsova that she and Djokovic go back a long way. “We’ve known each other since we were four. My father and his uncle went to school together, and once they went on a holiday to the mountains in Serbia. They own a restaurant there, so we met when we were four.” As both want to become No. 1, any photo of the two toddlers taken on that mountaintop could have immense value in years to come. MYSKINA
TO RETURN, RAFA ROLLS, FEDERER-ROCHE SPLIT
If Nikolay Davydenko wasn’t going to beat Rafael Nadal in three-and-a-half hours, Fernando Gonzalez sure wasn’t. After surviving his toughest test on clay since Roger Federer nearly took him down in the '06 Rome final, Nadal outlasted Davydenko in an immediate three-set classic in the semis and then won his third ATP Masters Series crown of 2007 by defeating Fernando Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2 in the final. With the victory, Nadal stretched his clay-court winning streak to a record 77 matches. "My special goal today was playing a little bit more aggressive than yesterday. And if Gonzalez takes the control of a lot of point, it's very difficult. So I try to return the ball and be more aggressive. I’m very happy with my game the last two months. I was playing my best tennis. I think I am in the best moment in my career, playing better than ever, so very happy for that." Roger Federer canned Tony Roche over the weekend and says he won’t be hiring another coach in the near future. “I'm definitely not going to take a coach for the French Open and Wimbledon because I know what it takes and I don't want anybody interfering with my preparation and with my tournaments. That’s a remarkable statement from the Swiss, who is in his first substantial slump in four years. Who’s next to go as an employee, Mirka or his mom? ... Major shout out to our friend Andrew Bogusch, he of Roland Garros and US Open radio fame. Andrew convinced the fetching Kate Jaray to marry him recently. Listen to Andrew on Sirius radio. He defines solid. © TennisReporters.net 2007 |
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