INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—Few players have worked harder to get themselves out of their own way than Ana Ivanovic. New coaches, new trainers, new entourages; new philosophies, techniques, fist-pumps, ball tosses, physiques. New leaves. Ivanovic is continually searching for a new way to take her mind out of the game and let her talent do what everyone knows it can do, to get her back to that happy, innocent—and brief—time of four years ago when she was kissing the French Open trophy and holding the No. 1 ranking. To, as she said today, “let go and strike the ball well.”
A winner in Indian Wells in 2008 and a finalist in ’09, Ivanovic is in the middle of her best big-event result in more than a year. Two nights ago she beat last year’s champ, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets. Today she moved into the semifinals with an equally routine 6-3, 6-4 win over the 2011 runner-up, Marion Bartoli. (The Frenchwoman said afterward that she was suffering from the ubiquitous stomach flu.)
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, I guess, that Ivanovic has found her old form her at Indian Wells. Underneath the shouts of “Ajde!”, Ivanovic is a quiet type. She likes the desert because of its easy pace. “It just gets your mind off tennis,” Ivanovic says, “and creates sort of less stress, and that really works for me. I want to try to create that nice little relaxed environment in a bubble around me wherever I am.”
Ivanovic has made her bubble as small as possible this year. No family, no trainer, no boyfriend; it’s just her and her coach, Nigel Sears. She’s gone “back to basics” before in her quest for answers, but out here she’s taken the concept to its extreme, clearing away anything that doesn’t have to do with tennis. Ivanovic and Sears have been a fixture all week on the practice courts. Where many coaches stand at the fence and observe their player behind a pair of sunglasses and crossed arms, Sears has been right next to Ivanovic, feeding balls, talking into her ear, demonstrating. The forehand has been the focus.
The two hooked up last summer, and Ivanovic said she was surprised by what “new” thing he had in mind for her. “It’s really weird,” she said today, “the forehand has been my best shot, and Nigel, the first thing he said, ‘We have to work on your forehand.’ I’m like, ‘Why?’”
But she sees the wisdom of it now. All the work, mostly on getting low and putting more topspin on the ball, has helped her add safety to what was already a weapon.
“I feel a lot more confident executing,” she said.
Ivanovic was very confident executing her forehand today. She teed off on a few returns with it, and moved the sluggish Bartoli across the baseline with crosscourt-down the line combinations. Maybe Sears was right: At a certain point, after you’ve worried about improving your weaknesses for so long, it can help to focus on making your strengths better. Practicing something you’re naturally good at it can give you a jolt of confidence and remind you that you really can play this game.
Still, it’s Ivanovic’s most famous, and debilitating, weakness that will decide whether this Indian Wells surge will continue when she gets to the more hectic tour stops ahead in Miami, Paris, and beyond. That would be her serve; more specifically, that would the oft-errant toss on her serve. It was mostly OK today. Ivanovic made first balls, cracked an ace at 112 m.p.h., and after two wild tosses late in the second set, came up with a momentum-sustaining service winner right into Bartoli’s body. It seemed to take the last winds out of the flagging Frenchwoman’s sails.
One element of Ivanovic’s game that she hasn’t pared down is her relentless assortment of fist-pumps and exhortations. A few nights ago, she even came up with a particularly dramatic one that I hadn't seen before. With a full Stadium 2 house on hand for her win over Ksenia Pervak, Ivanovic celebrated one hold of serve by shaking her racquet, bouncing on her toes, and then pulling the ball out of her skirt and throwing it violently into the backstop. She’ll never be a born show-woman—her moves always come off a little forced—but Ivanovic does her best to keep her competitive desire near the surface.
The question is, Is that such a good idea? Some mental-game specialists will tell you that too much celebrating and pumping-up can take you too high for a short time, and leave you too low when you do lose a point. Surfing the even-keel is the best idea for some, though as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have more than proven, it’s a matter of what works for you.
What was interesting was hearing Ivanovic in her presser remember a shot that she missed four years ago against her potential semifinal opponent, Maria Sharapova. It was on a crucial point in their 2008 Australian Open final, and Ivanovic blew a poorly chosen drop shot. Asked what she recalled about the match and the shot, she said, with a smile, “Oh my God, I remember how much I cried afterwards. I actually remember one shot in particular. It still hurts me so much. I cried all the way home on the plane about that shot.”
Do you think Ana has a little trouble letting go? She’s famous for her clenched fist; I wonder if she would be better off opening it up, metaphorically speaking, anyway. Sears told her today, when he came on court, to “just let go” on the forehand. You could say the same thing about her ball toss—just raise your hand and let go. Let go of the past, of the days when you were No. 1, before your nerves got in your way.
Like any new idea, letting go is easier said than done. As soon you think about letting go, you haven’t done it. But watching Ivanovic this week, we can see that if she does get her mind out of the way, her old game is still there, and it's still good enough to win. Nothing new needed.