Ana Ivanovic: perils of cuteness

No one at Wimbledon will admit it of course, but what the organisers dread this year is the sort of climax to the the women's tournament they had to endure at the recent Roland Garros. There, all the wrong girls were knocked out and the semi-finals ended up with four competitors no one really cared about.

As the Times reported, the ticket touts could hardly be bothered to get out of bed for the Russians Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova (who went on to win, by the way), while the other two, Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova and Australian Samantha Stosur, raised only a 'qui?' on the streets of Paris.

What Wimbledon needs is Maria Sharapova to rediscover her form, for the young British hopeful Laura Robson to live up her promise, and, even better, for the tall, dark and lovely Serbian Ana Ivanovic, the 21-year-old tennis star with the most visited website of any sportswoman, to get her act together.

Ivanovic, who won the French Open in 2008 but was knocked out before the quarter-finals this year, has been talking about the price she pays for being the most gorgeous tennis player in the game today.

"There's really not much friendship between the girls on tour," she told Charlotte Methven of the Mail on Sunday. "There's so much rivalry and jealousy, so everyone just hangs out in their own camp. In the locker room and players' lounge you can feel the jealousy. It's a shame, because it would be so nice if we could catch up over dinner or go shopping. Sadly, I have no close friends on the tour."

Of the media's infatuation with her looks, she said: "I feel flattered that people like the way I look, but it doesn't help you win points. I think the reason there is less rivalry and more friendship on the men's tour is because they don't [have to] deal with this element."

As for relationships between the men's and women's locker-rooms, Ana confirmed that she had broken up with the Spanish player Fernando Verdasco, whom she was seeing last year. "It is very hard to have a relationship as a tennis player," she said, "because you're travelling so much you don't get to see each other."

With a week to go before Wimbledon, she says it remains her dream to win the top grass title having made the semi-finals two years ago. The centre court crowd would appreciate it too.