Ana Ivanovic’s promising return to form in Cincinnati was making all the headlines and unbelievably all the hope of her resurgence got a bitter tone as the Serb retired injured from her semifinal against Kim Clijsters after playing just three games. We could have expected a meltdown, nerves, bad play, or whatever, but an injury! No way!

Ivanovic was trailing 2-1 when she made a return and hurt her ankle. She then received treatment and got back to the court, but couldn’t continue with the match. Nevertheless, the world No.62 Ivanovic will return to the Top 40 in the new rankings, but if the injury turns out to be serious she could well slip again. I hope the future will be favorable to Ana.

Clijsters’ opponent in the final will be the winner of the match between Maria Sharapova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Ana Ivanovic has reached her third semifinal of the year with a comfortable 6-1 6-3 victory over world No.114 Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati.

The 22-year-old Ivanovic didn’t face a break point in the quarterfinal that lasted 57 minutes. Ivanovic was pressurizing Amanmuradova’s serve, who is known for being a good server. Ivanovic’s aggressive returns denied the Uzbekistani all her points on the second serve in the first set.

Ivanovic is partly crediting her recent good results to old friend Marija Lojanica, who joined Ivanovic's staff as a physical fitness coach after Wimbledon. Lojanica is Ivanovic’s first female coach and Ivanovic said how nice it is to have a woman as a coach because they hang out after training and even the routine itself is more fun.

"It's been also a lot fun working out with a girl and just having fun and throwing in a dance or whatever. You know, just actually enjoying it," said the 2008 French Open champion. "She's a girl, so we can go shopping together, watch movies, do our nails. It just keeps your mind off tennis."

Marija Lojanica works with the Serbian Fed Cup team and the two have known each other since Ana was 13.

"In the past I was with male coaches, and you do a job and go back to the room. I really like to read and it was sort of relaxing," Ivanovic added.

"But then after all, you find you have spent all day in a room, and it gets kind of depressing. So it's good to go out and just do a fun girly stuff." (sources: Ana Ivanovic's official website, Reuters; photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Ana Ivanovic has continued her Cincinnati run by defeating Elena Vesnina in the third round. The Serb lost only three games to beat the Russian 6-0 6-3 in 64 minutes.

Ivanovic raced to a 4-0 lead in just 15 minutes, winning every point on Vesnina’s second serve. In that first set Ivanovic didn’t face a single break point, while in the second set the former world No.1 faced three and fought off all of them.

Ivanovic’s opponent in the quarterfinals will not be compatriot and top seed Jelena Jankovic, but rather world No.114 Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan who upset Jankovic 7-6(3) 6-4.

In all the matches that have finished by now on Thursday, lower seeds defeated higher seeds. No.11 Flavia Pennetta beat No.6 Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-3, No.12 Yanina Wickmayer defeated No.8 Li Na 2-6 6-2 7-6(4), and No.16 Marion Bartoli saw off No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-1. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.62 Ana Ivanovic followed up her first round upset of Victoria Azarenka with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Yaroslava Shvedova at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati. It’s Ivanovic’s first back-to-back win since the tournament in Rome in May when she reached the semifinals.

Ivanovic’s next opponent will be world No.49 Elena Vesnina, who advanced by upsetting fifth seed and French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4 6-4. If Ivanovic manages to overcome Vesnina, she could potentially face top seed and fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals.

Another breaking piece of news about Ivanovic is that she has declined a wild card into the main draw of the Rogers Cup. The former champion had her initial request turned down several weeks ago and was supposed to play qualifying. Tournament director Eugene Lapierre offered Ivanovic a wildcard on Tuesday but the Serb didn’t want to accept it, partly because it doesn’t fit her schedule any more and partly because she was offended by the director’s comments.

I would have loved to have played in Montreal, but I was quite hurt by the comments of Mr Lapierre that I was shown in The Montreal Gazette recently.

I don’t think his comments were necessary, and they contradicted everything he had told my management previously: that I was not getting a wild card because I am not Canadian.

The fact that my original request was turned down isn’t really an issue: I would have been happy to play qualifying, but I felt that they kind of stepped over the line with this interview, making public our correspondence and even misrepresenting it. Unfortunately I don’t feel welcome at this tournament.

Anyway, I am playing New Haven in a week or so, and I am currently at my third straight event (Cincinnati). Even though I haven’t played many matches, the training and travel take their toll, and I think this is the right decision to make, for several reasons.

(photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The first single of rapper and producer Filip Filipi’s latest album "Design & Origin of Stars" is titled "Hurricane Ana" and features Ana Ivanovic (you can hear her speak in the beginning) and reggae and dancehall artist Collie Buddz.

Filip Filipi was born in Serbia but has been living in Canada since his childhood. Following an injury which cut short his basketball career, Filip channeled his ambition through his other passion — music. He’s had Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne and T-Pain on board with his projects and got the attention of labels such as So So Def and Rap-A-Lot but preferred to keep his integrity in his own style of music.

Here are the lyrics of "Hurricane Ana":

They should name a hurricane after her
A typhoon, a mountain in africa
A monsoon, I'm a junkie just after her
She'll leave but I'll run right back after her Read more »