Former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic may have downgraded from playing Doha two years ago to playing the lower-rate Bali, but she’s on a good way to get back to the Top 20, being one win away from achieving that.

On the day of her 23th birthday, Ivanovic defeated Kimiko Date Krumm, the only player in the Bali field whom she wasn’t familiar with, and reached the final of the last tournament this season.

The 40-year-old Date Krumm won the first three games of the match and had double set point at 5-3, but Ivanovic then went on a six-game streak to win the first set and lead 2-0 in the second. Still, even though Ivanovic was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set, Date Krumm managed to stay in there, forced a tiebreak and won it despite trailing at first. The third set was Ivanovic’s, as she broke her opponent in the first and seventh games to move into the final with a 7-5 6-7(5) 6-2 victory.

The other finalist is Alisa Kleybanova, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 6-1 in the semis. Kleybanova was the one who took out defending champion Aravane Rezai in the previous round. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Ana Ivanovic had to part ways with Heinz Gunthardt because his family and other obligations prevented him from being 100% dedicated to Ivanovic, while she needs a full-time coach – someone to accompany her at all tournaments and training periods.

Partnership with Gunthardt, which started in February 2010, brought improvements to Ivanovic's game. Their cooperation ended after the China Open.

Ivanovic will not have a coach by her side in Bali, but she claims to have no problem with that as she went all the way to the Generali Ladies Linz title without a coach. (source: AnaIvanovic.com, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Ana Ivanovic's career is constantly going up and down, with longer down periods though. The 2008 French Open champion's revival suffered another setback as she lost in the quarterfinals of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open.

It was in exactly an hour that fourth-seeded Ivanovic lost 6-3 6-1 to eighth seed Julia Goerges, whom she defeated last week en route to the Generali Ladies Linz title.

Nevertheless, Ivanovic will enjoy the fact that in these two weeks she achieved her longest winning streak in straight set matches - with seven successive straight set victories. In addition, she is projected to move from No.26 to No.24 in the rankings. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The Generali Ladies Linz was the last tournament Ana Ivanovic won and two years later the Serb ended her title drought by winning the same event and in a pretty impressive fashion – without dropping a set and by winning the final against 47th-ranked Patty Schynder in just 47 minutes.

Both players had a 100% conversion of break points, but Ivanovic had six such chances compared to Schnyder’s two. After just 18 minutes of play Ivaanovic served for the first set at 5-1 and before you knew it she won the whole match 6-1 6-2.

The 2010 Generali Ladies Linz is Ivanovic’s ninth career title. The world No.29 has earned $37,000 and 280 ranking points with her successful showing at the Austrian tournament. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Ana Ivanovic’s last title came at the Generali Ladies Linz two years ago and this year she advanced to the final of the same tournament where she will face Patty Schnyder.

Ivanovic was a late entrant into the draw, but her trip to Linz really paid off as she will be playing her first final in 19 months, which she reached without dropping a set. In the semifinals the seventh-seeded Ivanovic defeated Roberta Vinci 6-3 7-5.

Schnyder, twice runner-up at Linz, had a tougher semifinal, and despite winning the first five games of the match she ended up saving two match points against sixth seed Andrea Petkovic in the third set. The Swiss came out as a winner after two hours and 15 minutes with the 6-2 4-6 7-5 score.

Ivanovic and Schyder have a tied 4-4 head-to-head record, but it was Ivanovic who won their last four meetings (between 2006 and 2008). (photos: © Neal Trousdale)