Ivanovic ready for Melbourne challenge

By Greg Stutchbury

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - After a break out year in 2007, world number four Ana Ivanovic is convinced she now has the game to challenge the world's leading players and win her first grand slam title.

The 20-year-old Serb won three WTA tour titles, made the French Open final, a semi-final at Wimbledon and qualified for the season-ending Player's Championships in Madrid and this year expects to go further.

"A grand slam title, the Players Championships (and) if I were to reach the final of the Olympics that would be a good year," Ivanovic told Reuters on Saturday.

"There were a lot of new experiences for me last year. My first final of a grand slam. I won a few titles and made the semi-finals at Wimbledon. Those were all little steps along the way to achieving my goals of becoming number one.

"Coming into this year I have more experience and more pressure, particularly the pressure I put on myself -- I expect myself to do better."

While she has compiled an impressive record against other players in the world's top-10, Ivanovic is yet to win a match against world number one Justine Henin and to tame the power game of the enigmatic Williams sisters Venus and Serena.

Henin has won all four of their matches, including the semi-final at Sydney earlier this week, as has Venus, while Serena has won their only match.

DIFFERENT GAME

"Last week I was quite close against Justine, I lost it 6-4 in the final set," Ivanovic said at a sponsor's event on Saturday.

"The Williams sisters -- they have a different game. They're very powerful and it's hard to get rhythm against them.

"But I've worked hard on improving my game to beat them and to be able to handle their pace."

Ivanovic arrived in Australia in early December to begin her preparations for the season-opening Australian Open and had spent a considerable amount of time adjusting to the heat.

"I was in Sydney preparing for the season. I went surfing and played beach volleyball and had all sorts of activities," she said with a smile.

"I love Australia. It is my favorite country. My fitness coach is from Sydney so that has worked out well. We went there and were just practicing. It's given me time to adjust to the heat."

While she had been concentrating on her game on the court, Ivanovic had also begun to make preparations for when her career ended by enrolling part time at university to study finance.