#2. Ana Ivanovic
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After winning the French Open in 2008 and subsequently becoming World No.1, the Serb had a dip in form that lasted for quite some time before undergoing a phase of resurgence in 2014 that saw her return to the Top 5 of the WTA rankings. 2015 was a little inconsistent for Ivanovic as she reached her first Grand Slam semi-final since the 2008 French Open but a number of below par performances resulted her descent to number 16th in the WTA rankings. However, a bigger downfall was in store for her in 2016.Ivanovic began the year poorly with first round exits at the Auckland International and the Sydney International before bowing out of the Australian Open in the third round.
This was followed by a semi-final appearance at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy and a quarter-final appearance at the Dubai Tennis Championships where she beat top seed Simona Halep in the second round. She ended her hard-court season with third round exits at Indian Wells and Miami.
She began her clay-court season poorly, exiting the Stuttgart Open in the first round which was followed by consecutive second round exits at the Madrid Open and the Italian Open. At the French Open, Ivanovic failed to defend her semi-final points from last year by exiting in the third round and as a result, she fell out of the Top 20.At the grass-court season, Ivanovic reached the quarter-finals of the Mallorca Open before suffering a shocking first round defeat at Wimbledon to qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets. Her poor form persisted as she suffered three consecutive first round exits at the Rio Olympics, Cincinnati Masters, and the US Open which made her fall out of the Top 50 for the first time in six years. Following the US Open, Ivanovic decided to skip the remainder of the WTA Tour.This isn’t the first time Ivanovic has suffered a downfall and given the fact that she has recovered well earlier from a similar situation, we can all hope to see her rise like a phoenix from the ashes next year around.
