Ana Ivanovic of Serbia was the victor in the final of the 2010 Tournament of Champions at Bali, Indonesia, defeating Russian, Alisa Kleybanova 6-2, 7-6(5).
The 23-year-old Ana is shown here dressed in a traditional Balinese outfit displaying the hardware she won. The outfit looks quite nice on this Serbian beauty, I might add.
The victory was especially sweet for Ana after she had struggled with her form earlier in the season. Throughout the season, she had managed to win back-to-back matches only twice up until August. Then she began to find her form again, the form that took her to No. 1 in the world following her French Open title in 2008, a ranking which she held for 12 weeks.
A semi-final in Cincinnati, from which she had to retire injured, was followed recently by her first title in two years in Linz, and now she has added Bali to her list of successes.
Alisa hits the ball extremely hard, but Ana managed to handle the pace and was often the more consistent player in the rallies. Her serve was also a weapon, as it has been in recent weeks, and she closed out the match with her eighth ace.
“It’s amazing. I’m really happy,” said Ana. It was such a good match. I think we both played some great tennis from the first point on and I really enjoyed it so much.”
It was Ana’s 13th victory in her last 15 matches. After the match, Ana said: “
Ana had fallen to 65th in the rankings in July. With this win she is back up to 17th, closing out her season with a remarkable reversal of outcomes. Ending the season on this high note gives her good reason for optimism heading in to the 2011 season.
Ana turned 23 years old during the tournament, so she has a lot of good years ahead of her.
