Ana Ivanovic’s Coach Says Her Development is “On Schedule”

Written by: Staff on 22nd February 2012

Ana Ivanovic’s Coach Says Her Development is “On Schedule”

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in action during her women's singles fourth round match against Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2012. EPA/MAST IRHAM |

There can be no quick fix for Ana Ivanovic’s return to the world’s elite in the women’s game but according to Nigel Sears, the coach appointed to revitalize the former world no.1’s game, the long term plan is right of schedule.

Ivanovic moved through in the Dubai Duty Free Championships with a 6-1,7-5 win in the battle of former French Open champions against Francesca Schiavone and the 24 year-old from Serbia is back up to no.18 on the WTA rankings.

“Bit by bit she is getting back to the standard Ana wants but there is no quick fix and you cannot just flick a switch and she’s suddenly playing the sort of tennis to win Grand Slam titles again,” said Sears who was appointed after Wimbledon last year.

“There have been some very good performances in the recent few months, she did OK at the Australian Open and there have been a couple of other occasions when she did extremely well like winning the title in Bali at the end of last year. But it’s a process which requires patience and it’s an on going process.”

Last week at the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Ivanovic lost disappointingly in the second round against Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic but the performance against Schiavone was far more encouraging .

“It was a real battle and there were a couple of stages in the match where Ana really had to dig deep,” said Sears who returned to the WTA scene after a spell masterminding the revitalization of the British women’s game at the Lawn Tennis Association. “She suffered a really difficult couple of years with a number of injuries that didn’t help.

“It’s probably fair to say she won a major title too early in her career and it was always going to be difficult after that point so a lot of things needed to worked on. It’s a great challenge and I now see really encouraging signs that everything is coming together and she is really moving in the right direction again.”

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