Ivanovic confident of getting over tears for fears

Paris: Ana Ivanovic, who had the world at her feet after her sensational 2008 French Open win, admits

she cried herself to sleep at night when her career went into an embarrassing tailspin. The 22-year-old Serbian beauty with the girl-next-door looks and the multi-million dollar deals, shot to number one in the world after her Roland Garros triumph. But then the dream turned sour. Illness and a loss of form in 2009 saw her ranking slip and she finished outside of the top 20 for the first time since 2004. Things didn`t look much better in January this year when she left the Australian Open in tears. "It was no fun at all. There were lots of tears and lots of hard times and lots of doubts and fears, everything, but it`s something that you learn. You overcome it and it makes you a better player and person after that," said Ivanovic, who started her 2010 Roland Garros campaign with a straight sets win over Taiwan`s Chang Kai-Chen. Ivanovic came into Paris unseeded and ranked at 42 but buoyed by a run to the semi-finals of the Rome claycourt event, beating top tenners Victoria Azarenka and Elena Dementieva on the way. She gives credit to her work with Heinz Gunthardt, who coached Steffi Graf, as part of the reason for her more optimistic frame of mind. "I think I`m a completely different player than I was a couple of years ago. The improvements are immense. And since I started working with Heinz, it`s really been every day I could see improvements.” "We worked a lot on my serve and also on my groundstrokes to be more free and actually swing through the ball better. It`s just making me feel more comfortable in the court." Next up for Ivanovic is a second-round clash with Russia`s Alisa Kleybanova, the 28th seed. It will be another test, but the former champion believes a return to the top 10 is just a matter of time. "I really feel I belong at the top and I can get back to the top," she said. "It`s just the little steps and trusting myself when I`m out there, when I`m hitting the ball, just trusting the movement and the stroke.” "So I think it`s also a process of just doing it over and over again until it becomes a habit." Bureau Report