Heinz Gunthardt is Ana Ivanovic’s new coach

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Wilson Blade 9

Ana Ivanovic

Heinz Gunthardt, former coach of tennis legend Steffi Graf, is about to coach player in crisis Ana Ivanovic and hopefully get her back where she belongs.

The world No.23 Ivanovic and Gunthardt will start their cooperation at the BNP Paribas Showdown on March 1, the exhibition event where the former world No.1 is replacing top-ranked Serena Williams.

Gunthardt helped Graf win 12 Grand Slams, and hopefully he can assist Ana to at least get that ball toss back. The 22-year-old has been changing coaches frequently, will the new one do the trick? (photo: chascow)

21 COMMENTS

  1. Greatest news I have hear in a long, long time! I am so happy about this. Guy has a great resume and imo is the perfect fit for Ana. He brought a lot of success to Stefi Graf with her huge forehand, maybe he can help Ana out on hers. Both Graf and Ivanovic do have similar forehands. Obviously Ana isn’t anywhere near the player that Graf was and in the end, it will be up to her or not on whether she gets out of this slump or not, but this is a step in the right direction and Gunthardt will certainly help. Just please take Adam’s advice Ana and be patient with him. The results wont come overnight. It will take lots of time, hard work and effort to get back to your form of 2008. I thought she fired Craig Kardon too soon. But man am I so happy about this news! 😀

  2. Great she will had that coach. Hope he´ll help her. She has fabolous forehand and sometimes also serve was her big weapon. If she improves her toss and claim back her confidence, she will be on top again I think 🙂

  3. Ana’s problems are in her head, so if he has the power to fix that, her serve and forehand will come back naturally.

  4. Good move Ana. Finally some good news about her coaching situation, even though it was the same with Craig Kardon last year. I don’t know why but I have a feeling that she will stick with this coach, he lead Steffi Graf to all those Majors so it sounds as if he has an idea of what it takes to be a good coach 🙂

  5. Very happy to hear this first thing in the morning. Hope he can help her with some psychological issues as well. That seems to be Ana’s greatest prob right now. All the best Ana!

  6. I agree Marija, it’s all in her head-I’m not liking the fact that she’s changing coaches so often-it’s not good for a player as they’ll have to get used to a new style of coaching and new regimens lol. When was she had her best? When she was with Sven and the Adidas group?

  7. She should find a long-time coach. Look at Dinara, she was/is very u know emmotional and she found great coach and it helps her a lot. Once I read great interview in slovak magazine with Krajan and he told that player can be good just when he is in a good relationship with his coach and they trust each other. Ana is still changing her coaches and good relationship can´t be built in a few months so there is a problem I think.

  8. LuLinQa, I totally agree, look at Justine and Carlos,they have been together for such a long time and she’s been doing great with him. I watched one interview with her where she also pointed out that so many girls on the tour change their couch after only a couple of months. I mean, if they cannot cooperate with coach how do they expect to perform well?!

  9. And if you have a good coach, why change? It’s a pity a player of Ana’s stature is still searching for the right one.

  10. I just think that changing a coach again seems desperate. I don’t know that she knows what to do. Ana has a good forehand as Graff had a great forehand so maybe the new coach will be able to help her. It could be the reverse of what is normally said, that with the serve fixed comes the rest of the game. But maybe with Ana, if she gets confident in the rest of her game, the serve will follow. But I think the situation has gone beyond mechanics and like many people here have said, it seems that now it is in the realm of mentality. Anyone thought of a sports psychologist?

  11. I am still sceptical whether this will help her improve, or hinder her even more./

    I actually agree with Marija…the problem is in her head!

    Thanks for the article Marija!

  12. I think Ana needs more self discipline. In my opinion she has reached the top in tennis but she is still quite immature and sensitive. She struggles with the media pressure, I read her blog where she describes how a journalist mocked her for past defeats and so on. Well, it obviously got to her, she even stated a full name of a guy. I think she needs to forget about the media and outside pressure and focus only on her game. Hacks will always try to find a scandal about her, she is young, attractive and that is the only think some shallow people want to look at. We, tennis fans know there’s more about Ana than just a pretty face. Maybe someone should go on her site and recommend her this tennis blog ;-D

  13. I have my reservation about this hiring -my next comment is not directed nor intended to anyone on this blog nor it’s readers- I will not be a buffoon and a mindless cheerleader, go from tennis website to tennis website and cheer about this hiring. Let us remember Gunthardt worked with Jelena Dokic, with no Stefi Graff success.

    Ms. Marine I agree with you. To me it shows that Ivanovic is weak minded.

  14. Her problems have nothing to do with coaching,she has mental issues that only Ana can fix not a great resume.She seemed to have great chemistry with Sven,she will continue to freefall after Indian Wells..

  15. Bb and Marine, thank you! 🙂

    Good outside help is always welcome, but true, Ana can help herself the most, only that she doesn’t know how to. Hope she’ll find the way.

  16. Ana needs to stop listening to all the famous people around her. I think Sven is a very experienced coach, but he is now head of the adidas player development. He most likely can’t focus on one player. I remember Ana in the juniors and she had this coach from Serbia who she was always working with. I also saw her working with a American caoch named Sean Abdollahi at a tournament, but he was working with other players. They where working so focused and intense. That picture has always stuck in my mind. Coaches like Gunthart or Pavel Slozil are simply way too old and have not kept with the game. The same can be said about Vant Hof. Good luck Ana! Too bad she doesn’t read these blogs.

  17. Hey imakeplan. I see that you have plastered this same posting all over the internet. So, I’m thinking you are Sean Abdollahi from Mountain View now down in Orange County.
    What a douche….I have nothing good to say about Sean. He is a poser and doesn’t know a tennis ball from his a**.
    People don’t pay for this fake. He lies about who he knows and coached. Bad vibes of this guy. Find someone professional

  18. To TheTennisfan007 : I trained at Sean’s academy in Mt. View in the early/mid 90’s. I don’t know if he exaggerates his resumè, but your statement that “he doesn’t know a tennis ball from his a**” is totally false. He has a lot of tennis expertise, which I have benefited from. So please don’t make a statement like that.

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