Monday, March 29, 2010
Ivanovic withdraws from Serbian Fed Cup team
Ana Ivanovic has withdrawn from the Serbian Fed Cup team that is scheduled to play a tie against the Slovakian team next month. "I spoke with the captain Dejan Vranes, and the President of the Federation Slobodan Zivojinovic, and together we decided that under these circumstances, and after all that has happened lately, it’s not the right time for me to be part of the team," Ivanovic announced.
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5 comments:
Good decision if she adds another tournament to her schedule in April, replacing it. Playing in Fed Cup would bring no good to Ana. So much pressure playing at home, very little match play and would get no ranking points from it which she needs badly. Hopefully she can achieve these things by adding a smaller tournament to her schedule such as Marbella, Fes or Barcelona. She already has added Stuttgart which is a good sign.
I agree, Curtis. She doesn't need that kind of pressure.
Wow, it truly speaks to something unfortunate when a grand slam winner and former #1, less than two years past her career high point, can't handle the pressure of a Fed Cup match and has to seek out small tournaments that she can better handle.
I'm not sure it's ever happened before. At least she's doing the smart thing, though, and not digging the hole deeper.
Curtis FWIW as a long time admirer of Ana, I am not even sure that these smaller tournaments can help her right now. I have no idea what the problem is, and as Todd says, if just 2 years after her biggest win and being No.1. she cannot handle a Fed Cup match then I am not even sure she will be able to handle smaller events. Could it be that she reached her career peak and is unable to find that inner motivation that all players should have to pick her game up and try something new? Does she still have the urge to go out there and hit balls day in and day out, travel the world and meet sponsors and fans and go through the whole rigmarole of the daily grind on Tour every day for the next 3-4 years? Somehow, I think Ana is looking more and more like how Clijsters used to look before she retired, disinterested, having problems with her game, injured all the time. Everything sort of culminated in Clijsters taking a break, getting married, having a child and coming back. Perhaps what Ana needs to do is ask herself whether tennis is what she wants to do for the rest of her life and if it is, then she needs to find the motivation to continue to do it. Some of us are stuck in jobs that we hate and some of us are brave enough to change mid life, does Ana have the guts to hang up her racquet and tell the world that this is not what she wants, but that she wants to go back to school, study psychology and help fellow athletes who may be facing the same issues? Just something to think about.
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