Serenavic

by Pete Bodo

NEW YORK—For years now, former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic has been the quintessential "nice girl" of the WTA, congenial and cheerful enough to bring out the cynic even in some who ought to know better. Some pundits feel that her obliging nature has been a drag on her career, keeping her from defending the domain she claimed when she became No. 1 in 2008. But her slide out of the Top 20 (although she's now back to No. 19) probably had more to do with certain elements in her game—a shaky serve and limited power—and the pressure visited upon a player ill-equipped in many ways to dominate than her disposition. Roger Federer isn't some snarling socio-path either, and he had a good little run.

When Ivanovic appeared on Ashe today, I was almost moved to fear for her. She was about to play Serena Williams, alongside whom she appeared about as menacing as a timid schoolgirl in the presence of the principal. Wearing a dress that struck an interesting balance between demure and attention-seeking (Adidas describes the color as "sharp red"—knives on center court, anyone?), Ivanovic looked too proper and prim to stand up to Serena, who's presently also favoring a dress that's the color of blood (not her own).

The sculptor Michaelangelo said that his job was to chip away the stone to liberate the figure within. Over the last three years, the once-plump Ivanovic has gradually emerged before our eyes like one of those figures, the sculpting having been done by time, a competent fitness trainer, and her own discipline and self-control. But compared to Serena, who's 29, fully formed, and not necessarily what you might have predicted a decade ago, Ivanovic looked almost frail. But the difference hardly hampered Ivanovic once they got a few games in. She channeled the mean girl who lives inside every successful player and gave Serena much to think and fret over while losing, 6-3, 6-4.

Take that as a comment on the degree to which Serena towers over the WTA these days. This was her 31st win in her last 32 hard-court matches. The last woman to beat her on the surface is long-retired Elena Dementieva (she tagged Serena in the 2010 Sydney final). And today's win boosted Serena's record on hard courts this year to 16-0 (she withdrew with a toe injury in Cincinnati, but that doesn't count as a loss because her match never started).

Still, would anyone have predicted that Ivanovic would belt more winners than Williams (20 to 16), or commit just seven more forced errors? And that on a day when Ivanovic struggled with her serve, converting just 51 percent of first serve and throwing in eight double faults. About that, she would say: "I didn't feel like I was getting blown off the court today. I really felt I created a lot of opportunities for myself. But she did play well. I felt her serve held up more than mine did and that was the difference. . . My serve is getting better, and it's on its the way to becoming a weapon. But I still have a lot of work to do."

At the onset, the swirling wind that had both women clutching the hem of their dresses in an effort to avoid reprising that famous photo of Marilyn Monroe billowing on a subway grate threatened to turn the match into a literal blowout. Serena jumped to a 3-0 lead, at which point I decided to keep a precise count of the points Ivanovic won outright during her service games, and how she won them.

I thought the exercise might be more valuable than relying on the post-match stat sheet, and provide a good sense of how tough it is to impose your game on Serena. And at that point, I couldn't foresee how effectively Ivanovic would rally from that three-game deficit. I expected her to hit an embarrassingly low number of outright winning shots, but on this day she was a regular Serenavic.

All told (and this includes the second game of the match, in which Ivanovic dropped at 15), Ivanovic reached out and won 21 points in a decisive manner. Remember, this is different from the number of winners on the stat sheet, because I'm not counting any of the points played against Serena's serve. And when it comes to telling a service winner from a service-return error, I tend to be hard on the server, counting almost any serve at which the receiver took a decent swipe at as a return error.

Ivanovic won nine points with winners or forced errors created by her forehand. Despite her struggles with the wind and an unacceptable number of double faults, Ivanovic won eight points with her serve—five service winners and three aces. Ivanovic's backhand accounted for three winners and she forced one error from Serena with an artful drop shot. The moral—it really is all about the serve and forehand.

After the match, Serena herself professed to having been disinterested in playing commanding tennis. "It was crazy, I didn't even go for winners at any point. I just tried to get it over because it was so windy. It was like. . . Wow. It was definitely tough."

Serena is an imposing, intimidating figure at the worst of times, but Ivanovic handled that challenge particularly well. A frosty silence descended on the court while Ivanovic battled back to 3-all in the first set; New York fans love Serena. In the next game, Ivanovic had Serena on the ropes—a forehand approach winner and backhand that forced an error brought Ivanovic to the brink with a break point. Serena swept aside the threat by forcing a forehand error, and probably caught the entire stadium by surprise when she suddenly roared, "Come on."

Ivanovic, though, was unfazed and not a bit intimidated. "I mean, I was screaming some 'come ons,' too," she said afterward, as if she wasn't going to be underestimated—or outdone in the yelling and self-motivating departments. "But she does try to intimidate. She stays close to the baseline so you feel like you have no space to hit to. That's something I expected going into the match."

Of course, Ivanovic has the dubious distinction of having the least convincing fist pump on the planet, and I seriously doubt that her "come on!" is menacing enough to keep a mouse from stealing away with a piece of Cheese. Even her grunt is discreet. But once upon a time her quiescence and unadvertised determination proved enough to earn a Grand Slam title and the highest ranking in the world. Judging from how she played today, it would be premature to leave her out of the Grand Slam conversation in the future—presuming she continues to work her way back up the ranking staircase.

Serena has no such concerns. She's already at the top landing, even though she implied today that catching up with her sister Venus and rival Kim Clijsters in the total title count (Venus has 43, Clijsters 41 and Serena 39) might be problematic. She has no more room in her new home in Los Angeles for trophies, now that she's converted one of the empty rooms to a karaoke room.

"We sing our hearts out," she said, when asked about that room. "We've sung till 8:00 in the morning. I was like, 'Oh my God, the sun's coming out.' I look out and see the sun. We keep singing and singing and singing and singing. It's magical."

Sure. . . almost as magical as keeping on winning and winning and winning and winning. . .