Happy 35th Birthday Ana Ivanovic, 2023 International Tennis Hall of Fame candidate

One of the greatest sports stories of the 21st century has been the emergence of Serbia as a tennis powerhouse. Three of its players have been ranked No. 1 in the world. The first, Ana Ivanovic, turns 35 years old today.

Ivanovic’s journey began in Belgrade. At the age of five, she watched Monica Seles on TV and instantly became fascinated with tennis. Ivanovic’s formative years as player were quite unusual. “I grew up playing in a swimming pool,” she said in 2007 Reuters story. “It was a club where they had an Olympic pool. It was very expensive to keep it warm during the winter so they emptied the pool, put carpet inside and placed two tennis courts.”

That distinctly compressed environment likely explains the flat, hard groundstrokes that became the cornerstones of Ivanovic’s game. As she said, “It was impossible to play crosscourt because the wall was too close so we had to keep playing down the lines.”

Similar to such peers as Novak Djokovic, Ivanovic played tennis during the 1999 NATO bombings of Belgrade. “You realized that they are not bombing just everything, only certain buildings,” she said. “So after a month, I started practicing, and that was good.”

When Ivanovic was 15 years old, Daniel Holzmann, a Swiss-based entrepreneur, offered to sponsor her. Soon after, Ivanovic relocated to Switzerland to train. In 2005, at the age of 17, Ivanovic competed in the main draw of Roland Garros for the first time, upset third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, and went all the way to the quarterfinals. Ranked 97th in the world at the start of ’05, by the end of the year she was ranked 16th, the start of an 11-year run inside the Top 25.

Ivanovic’s glory days came in 2007 and 2008. In each of those years, she won three WTA singles titles and reached Grand Slam singles finals—Roland Garros in ’07, the Australian Open and Roland Garros in ‘08. The pinnacle came at Roland Garros in 2008. With poise, power and precision, Ivanovic dropped only one set and won the tournament. That lone three-setter came versus her countrywoman, Jelena Jankovic, in the semis (Ivanovic would win nine of their 12 matches). In the final, Ivanovic beat Dinara Safina, 6-4, 6-3—and claimed the world No. 1 ranking, a spot she would hold for 12 weeks.

But life at the top wasn’t easy for Ivanovic. A short time later, she was beaten in the third round at Wimbledon and the second round of the US Open. More than four years would pass before she’d reach another Grand Slam quarterfinal (2012 US Open). And only once after that triumph in Paris did Ivanovic advance to a Slam semi (2015 Roland Garros). Injuries and doubts derailed some of the confidence that had taken her to the top. Nowhere did this surface more vividly than when Ivanovic tossed the ball to serve. And yet, as much as Ivanovic struggled with her delivery and motion, she continued to work hard on her tennis, remain positive, and endure as one of the sport’s most popular players.

The start of 2014 marked an Ivanovic comeback that would take her back inside the Top 10 for the first time since ‘08. At a tournament in Auckland, she beat Venus Williams and won her first singles title in three years. Later that month came an upset win over top-ranked Serena Williams in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Over the course of 2014, she’d win a career-best four singles titles and finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world—her highest year-end ranking since 2008.

Ivanovic’s retirement came at the end of 2016. By then she was 29, worn out by injuries—including a recurring wrist issue and a broken toe. Having become a United Nations Children’s Ambassador for Serbia in 2007, Ivanovic’s retirement announcement declared her desire to became “an ambassador of sport and healthy life.” Married to German soccer player Bastian Schweinsteiger in the summer of 2016, Ivanovic has since given birth to two boys, Luka and Leon.