31st December, 2010
Andy Roddick says he is back at full fitness for the first time since coming down with mononucleosis in the spring, and he is looking forward to the New Year full of optimism of making it big in the world of tennis.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve felt right since last May, so when you are fit it takes a lot of the mental pressure off,” he said, speaking to reporters in Brisbane. “You feel like you can play any way you want so I feel fresh and I feel enthused and ready.”
After starting the season with a 26-4 record, the American pulled out of his first and only claycourt warmup event with what turned out to be the first signs of the virus and went 22-14 for the rest of the year, also retiring in Shanghai with injury.
Getting back to full strength in the middle of the season was a challenge. “You train hard and you get hurt in training coming back. You don’t train you rest and you try and come back and your body is not right and it shows,” he said.
Roddick is the defending champion in Brisbane. “I came in last year and hadn’t been playing much so this was a really good springboard into the year for me,” he said. “I like being in the same country but also I like this event.
“My wife enjoys coming here so let’s not pretend I make any decisions,” he quipped.
Clearer of mind and fitter of body than for some time, Serbian glamour girl Ana Ivanovic is confident she can climb back into the top 10 in 2011.
Ranked No 1 in the world in 2008, when she won her only Grand Slam singles title at the French Open, Ivanovic dropped out of the top 60 this year as she battled poor form before climbing her way back to 17 by season’s end.
The 23-year-old claimed titles in Austria and Bali in the last three tournaments she played for the season and enters the new year full of confidence that her career is finally back on track.
Speaking yesterday as she prepared to partner Novak Djokovic in the mixed teams Hopman Cup, Ivanovic said she was reaping the rewards of working with a new coaching team and an improved fitness regime.
She said the main improvement in her game was a renewed belief in her own ability.
“I am on the right way,” she said.
“I feel good about my game and my fitness at the moment.
“It is a strange thing, once you lose it (confidence) you feel like it is very hard to get it back.
“In my case, I tried to search for it in many different directions and many different places and with different people, but you realise that it is all the time within you, you just have to discover it.”
Ivanovic said she started working on her fitness with a close friend after Wimbledon.
“Once I got fitter, I felt like it gave me confidence on the court,” she said.
“I worked really hard and started to play a lot better in the summer in America and all the things started to come together.
“It wasn’t any more this balance between my game, my fitness and my mental, which was very nice to see.
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