Time for Ana Ivanovic to Toss Tennis and Take a Vacation

NEW YORK -- It's so easy. No one is there to block it. There is no rush. You're on your time. You rest the tennis ball in a few fingers, put your thumb on top, arm low, cock your wrist back a little, then raise your arm a few feet and let go.

Ana Ivanovic can't do that anymore. She has the yips on her toss, a mental block stopping her from the easiest thing, something she has done her entire life without thought.

For a while last year, she was ranked No. 1 in the world. Now, one of the most sickening, broken-winged looking sites in tennis is watching her float the ball up, and then. . .catching it because it was in the wrong spot, and trying again.

What's so difficult about the toss?

"It's very hard to describe," she said Tuesday night, after losing to No. 52 Kateryna Bondarenko in the first round of the U.S. Open. She lost 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) after holding a match point, in the most mentally testing time in tennis: a final set tiebreaker.

"Sometimes when I toss, I either release too early or I flick it and I release too late. I tried also to do exercises with a heavier ball so I get more feel for it."

Sounds like you're thinking too much about a mindless thing.

"Well," she said, "I think I've been thinking about everything too much."

Ana Ivanovic needs a break. Now. Was anyone listening to what she was saying?

We've seen so many tennis players burn out, wear out and disappear. I can't say she's there yet. But these are the warning signs.

Is someone going to notice?

When Ivanovic won the French Open last year and climbed to No. 1, she was going to be tennis' new It girl. The women's game always is searching to sell itself with an uncomfortable balance of talent or sex appeal.

Ivanovic has both. And the game, in real need of stars, cannot afford to chew her up and spit her out. More importantly is the balance of a 21-year old.

Do you know what she did before the match? Think about this: A former top seed in a place where she lost embarrassingly in the second round a year earlier.

Think of what normal thoughts would be in that situation.

"I spoke to my coach because I just said, `You know, I feel like I constantly keep going and going. It's really hard because even though I had some time off, I was still doing like a little bit of fitness or rehab or something. So my mind was still on tennis,'" she said.

"I haven't had a proper holiday in years."

She is 21 years old, and said she has a hard time remembering that. She said she feels old, like 25. And then she laughs at that.

"And probably in a few days, I will look like that with bags under my eyes."

Let her step away now for a few months. Her ranking has fallen to No. 11, and it will fall more. But who cares?

She was still emotional, and with red eyes when she spoke Tuesday night, but was anyone listening to what she was really saying?

The former No. 1 player cannot toss the ball for her serve. Her mind doesn't want her to do it. She is talking before a big match about how she hasn't stopped thinking about tennis for years.

We've seen these yips on the toss before recently, from Elena Dementieva. But that didn't smell of burnout.

Truth is, she kept working on it and working on it until she figured it out. And Ivanovic is inclined to try the same thing.

"I have to think about some things first on my own and then with the team and discuss and see what's going to be the best. . ." she said.

"It's really hard. Two sessions a day and work really hard when you have, all the time, tournaments and competition coming. (But) you want to be fresh for your matches.

"So that's a little bit of a Catch-22."

She talked about using the next few weeks to work and to rest, whatever that means.

Ivanovic has made changes in her team, firing her coach and her trainer, and hooking up with the Adidas corporate team, including a former coach and also highly successful coach Darren Cahill.

She has spent the year playing, and trying to rehab from knee and shoulder pain. And her team has also scrapped her old, traditional service motion for the new, popular shorter one without much backswing.

It was meant to put less pressure on her shoulder and also to fix her toss.

"It helps my toss because it's abbreviated," she said. "I can control it much more. I think my toss has become a lot better with this new movement."

It might improve much faster with about three months of lying on the beach.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com