Ivanovic keeps a clear head
No. 5 seed blasts into third round
NEW YORK -- The guy was a head case.
But a teenage girl from a remote corner of Europe called Serbia isn't necessarily prepared to deal with strangers in the big city, the Big Apple to be exact. What's a girl named Ana Ivanovic to do?
Well, one thing this working girl did yesterday in a Flushing sweatshop (Arthur Ashe Stadium) was promote herself to the third round of the US Open. She did it in a neat strong-armed way with seven aces and 22 winners (most of them blistering forehands) to eliminate Aravane Rezai of France, 6-3, 6-1.
Then she, the No. 5 lady in her worldwide business, talked about the New York experience.
"Definitely a great atmosphere. But it's tough. I find it very hard because there is a lot of traveling, lot of people. Everyone is trying to talk to you," said Ivanovic. "It's different. It's many people. [There are 1.6 million in Belgrade, her hometown.]
"Once you're on the court it builds you up and gives you energy to play harder. Very exciting . . ."
But, Ana, what about the head case guy?
"Yeah, actually yesterday when I was signing autographs after practice, the guy asked me to sign his forehead. I was, like, 'Are you kidding?'
"No," Ivanovic said with a grin. "No, I didn't sign. I say to him, 'I can sign your ball, or shirt, but forehead?' I felt bad for him if I did -- walking around with a sign on his head."
This seeker of personalized penmanship -- certainly he would never have washed it away -- isn't too different from thousands of chaps who have seen the 19-year-old Ivanovic on TV, sports pages, or in person. The 6-foot-1-inch brunette is charming, friendly, has a good sense of humor, and talks as fast as her serve, which got up to 118 miles per hour.
When she and No. 61 Rezai reported for the job, it was 11 o'clock on a lazy, sunny morning. About 5,000 witnesses (of the matinee crowd of 36,350) spilled across the sporting canyon that holds 23,737.
Maybe the hour was too lazy for Ivanovic. Her foe, the stocky mademoiselle, was all business, banging away to a 3-1 lead. Rezai, 20, from an Iranian background, had lost to Ivanovic in the third round at Wimbledon, and was determined to reverse it. She had beaten Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova on the way to the Istanbul final, a decision lost to Elena Dementieva. Two years ago, wearing the required long trousers, Rezai won gold medals in singles and doubles at the Muslim Games in Tehran. No male spectators permitted.
"It was a very slow start for me because I was nervous. I was going for too much," said Ivanovic. "It was only my second time playing there. I lost to Serena [Williams] in the third round last year. It's a big place, the biggest in tennis. It wasn't easy at first, but as the match went on I found my rhythm, and it was a great feeling. A great atmosphere.
"It wasn't the [nervousness] like I had in Paris. That was tops in nervous," she said of her major final debut, the French in June, where, paralyzed by the occasion, she was a fragile pushover for Justine Henin, 6-1, 6-2. "Whenever I get nervous like today, I say to myself, 'Nothing can be as bad as Paris,' and I'm over it."
Quickly over it. Within a half-hour, Ivanovic rolled up eight consecutive games to take the first set, arrive at 3-0 in the second, and was peeking ahead to Venus in the fourth round.
As the youngest of Serbia's astounding Itch Kids Trio -- Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic complete it -- Ivanovic is justly proud of the positive impact they've made on behalf of their country. "We motivate each other to get better," she said.
Returning to Belgrade after Wimbledon, they were feted at a public celebration in Parliament Square.
"We were on a balcony in the center of the city. Maybe 10,000 to 15,000 people were there. It was nice to see because most of them were very young. Nice to see that kind of people attracted to tennis.
"I thought back to when I was one of those children," Ivanovic recalled. "I was about 9 and my parents took me to see our [Yugoslavia's] 1996 Olympic champions in volleyball and basketball. I couldn't imagine that I'd be honored like that someday. I think honoring us as individuals, not a team, was something new."
The crowd made a lot of joyful noise, but nobody asked her to autograph an ear. 