After falling from No. 1, Ana Ivanovic returns

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The left fist that Ana Ivanovic kept clenching at the French Open as she collected winners and victories got much less use the rest of the season.

Ivanovic’s first Grand Slam singles title, which came in Paris in June, may yet prove to be a springboard to more major trophies, but it was no ticket to the stratosphere in 2008.

She lost in the third round at Wimbledon and would have lost a round earlier if not for an improbable net-cord winner that left her opponent, Nathalie Dechy, dumbfounded on match point.

But the fates have been much more evenhanded since then. Ivanovic went on to develop cysts in her wrist and lost six of her next 11 matches, missed the Olympics and surrendered the top ranking to Jelena Jankovic, her fellow Serb, before pulling herself back together in Linz, Austria, last month by winning another tournament.

“I really enjoyed playing as No.1; I was feeling only good pressure, but I was really unlucky, and it was very tough for a few months of my career, not being able to practice for about a month,” she said in a telephone interview from Linz. “When I came back and started playing, I wanted to play at the level I was at the French Open but obviously it wasn’t possible.”