Former world no.1 Ana Ivanovic is not enjoying the best time of her career. The 22 year-old’s ranking has slipped outside the top 20; she has not won a title of any kind since the 2008 French Open and has failed to reach the quarter final stage of any of the seven ensuing Grand Slam events. After last weekend’s Fed Cup defeat of Serbia by Russia, she emotionally admitted: “I'm struggling psychologically.”
Nevertheless adidas, who have recently jettisoned such tennis talent as men’s world no.2 Novak Djokovic, Marcos Baghdatis and the game’s leading men’s doubles team the Bryan brothers from their tennis stable, have shown their faith in Ivanovic by giving her a deal for life.
Ivanovic will wear ‘three-stripe’ products for the entirety of her career and will become an ambassador for the brand upon retirement from competitive tennis. In doing so, Ivanovic is believed to have become the youngest ever athlete – male of female – to sign an agreement of this length.
“I’m very proud to wear adidas for the rest of my career,” said Ivanovic who currently relies on Sven Groeneveld, the Dutchman who leads the adidas Player Development Program, as her main coach. “Over the last few years adidas has helped me immensely by providing me with great products and unique services off the court including the adidas Player Development Program.
“Therefore, this long-term contract extension means a lot to me and was a logical decision. I feel thrilled to be a member of the adidas family and I am very much looking forward to working with adidas on many projects in the future.”
Jocelyn Robiot, adidas' VP Global Sports Marketing clearly has not qualms about the dip in the Ivanovic career over the last 20 months which has been affected by a series of injuries and health issues.
“Ana Ivanovic’s spirit on and off the court is consistent with what women’s tennis stands for and is without any doubt a great ambassador for adidas,” said Robiot. “Ana has been part of our women’s training marketing activities from day one and we are delighted to continue our successful partnership in the future.”
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