Oh this is an embarrassing one: Ana Ivanovic continued her horrendous second half of the season at the US Open today.
The struggling Serb was unceremoniously booted from the second round 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 by Frenchie qualifier Julie Coin, a 25-year old ranked 188th in the world - ouch! Julie was also playing in her first Grand Slam tourney EVER - double ouch!!
Clearly Ana was way off her 'A' game and was lacking match play and practice. But seriously, she should've been able to wrangle this Frenchie journeywoman with her 'Z' game, right?
A sad state of affairs for the top lady baller - well, the top lady baller for now.
(image via Getty)
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Ana performs the 'Serbian Slide', falls to 188th ranked lady baller
Labels: Ana Ivanovic, tennis, US Open
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This one hurts, simply because AI gets the awesome distinction of being the number 1 seed who lost to the lowest ranked player in history.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, all disappointment aside, she had a heck of year. Now she just needs to heal up and re-establish herself during the fall season.
Maybe that Adidas outfit is cursed? She wore the same combo but different colors at Wimbly and Montreal. Yeah, I'm going to go with that.
i'm not an ana fan at all, so this wasn't too hard to watch.
ReplyDeletewhat a feeling for coin! first grand slam!!
just emphasises how crap the womens game is. Justine, come back!! Only Dinara gets my attention in the womens draw.
ReplyDeleteI know she won the French Open but she doesn't seem to have a champion's mentality. She looked so sluggish during the match with hardly any fight at all. I've seen players injured, without much match play put up a lot more fight.
ReplyDeleteShe doesn't seem to handle adversity well.
-Lisa
lisa: agreed. i was waiting for her to get vocal, pump herself up, really buckle down and show intensity.
ReplyDeletebut she seemed scared and frustrated and basically let the journeywoman push her around. ana never made julie feel her on the court, never made her realize where she was and who she was playing against.
obviously ana is not ready for the top yet. but what is more worrisome is that she can still be overpowered even by lesser foes, still pulls up on her shots especially on her forehand side, and doesn't have a plan 'B' or 'Z' like i mentioned.
she needs more time to mature. justine did leave a black hole in the tour - she could still be dominating right now.
Maybe Ana is one of those players that prefers fighting her way up, not sure what to do once she actually reaches the top.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind Justine being gone. Great player but she had lousy sportsmanship. I like the guessing game of who's going to be the next on top. The only real frustrating thing for me is that there aren't more American women doing anything. Without the Williams the state of American women's tennis would be really sad.
-Lisa
"...still pulls up on her shots especially on her forehand side,"
ReplyDeletei actually meant ana pulls up on her backhand side, forehand is good. rusty, but good.
american tennis in general but women's american tennis is scarily empty outside of the williams sisters. i mean, there isn't one up-and-coming lady baller out there who's made it to any final in a long while. it's a vacuum that won't be filled until the next generation. let's check out the 12 and unders at this point.
lisa...
ReplyDeletei agree. i don't mind justine out of the game. she always annoyed me. i'm sure she'll be back though, but i'm not anxiously awaiting that day.
tr.
I do mourn Justine's exit. I am actually a fan of Venus and Serena but Justine brought a different style of play and player which is great when you see that almost everyone near the top is six feet and depends on power not finesse. Also when Justine was number one it was because she was the best. Since then the number ones have been the ones who momentarily sucked less than everyone else. It's a shock that Ana has been able to hold on to the #1 spot, but that just proves my point about everyone sucking equally. Perhaps an exception would be the Williams, they've played quite well but they haven't played enough.
ReplyDeleteA little look at our Top 10:
ReplyDelete(1) Ivanovic- no mental toughness, and possibly worst World no. 1 ever. I wish she could get her act together, and NOT push herself to enter a tournament if she's not 100%
(2) Jankovic- fit as hell, but no mental toughness whatsoever. If women's games went to 5 sets, I bet she'll bagel the opponent the first two sets and then lose the match.
(3) Kuzy- I don't know what has happened to her
(4) ReRe- she's actually improving; my bet for a finals berth
(5) DemonTieva- her eyes are still sparkling from her golden Olympic moment, yet I predict she won't make it past semis.
(6) Shrieka- I wish her a fruitful career in selling diamond-encrusted digital cameras
(7) Dinarer- she's clearly the best in the women's draw now, but she really needs to concentrate on her serve
(8) V- I don't know
(9) Agi- I love this girl. I can see her dominating 2009 for some reason
(10) Vera- I don't know
anon 3:54 - nice breakdown though i see anna chak at no. 9 this week, not agi (no. 11).
ReplyDeletebut anyway here a couple of my thoughts: elena is streaking and if she keeps the serving yips at bay could make a run to the title. she's been in the final before so she knows how to play in NY. V is rolling and if she keeps her concentration she should make at least the semis again this year. Vera is a headcase.
what do you guys think of anon's list?
I pretty much agree with the list. Even though I really wasn't her biggest fan, I have to admit Justine did leave a big fat crater in what used to be the women's game. Right now it's just about who happens to have enough points to mathematically be no. 1.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't too sad about Ana's early exit though. She doesn't quite seem to deserve the top spot at the moment - and her constant fist-pumping after E-V-E-R-Y point (even if it's a lame service error of the opponent) annoys the crap outta me. To me, she seems still very immature. Her look when she lost to Coin was the look of a little girl whose lollipop just had been taken away.
Anyway, I think the best lady ballers around at the moment are the Williams sisters and Dinara Safina. Radwanska could be a up-and-comer. And who I always liked a lot were Petrova, Peer and Golovin, but I dunno if those ladies are really top 10 material (anymore). Same applies to Mauresmo.