Ana Loses Strength

Ana Ivanovic will launch her North American summer hard-court season in Carson next week with a streamlined support team.

Scott Byrnes, Ivanovic's long-time strength and conditioning trainer, and Ivanovic have parted company, concluding a three-year partnership. Byrnes is planning to take a break from the rigorous travel schedule of the WTA Tour and return to his native Australia.

"I would like to thank Scott for all his hard work," Ivanovic said in a statement posted on her official website Ana Ivanovic.com. "We achieved so much together and I will always look back with fondness at this period of my career. Scott really transformed my fitness and I wish him all the best for the future."

Brynes, Ivanovic's coach Sven Groeneveld and hitting partner Marcin Rozpedski celebrated Ivanovic's 2008 Roland Garros championship by stepping into her dresses. Before the start of the 2008 French fortnight Ivanovic's coaching team promised they would "do something outrageous" if she won the tournament. The trio vowed to run around the Arc de Triomphe clad in Ana's adidas dresses.

The second-seeded Ivanovic scored a straight sets win over Dinara Safina in the final and celebrated with her family and team at a dinner. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Ivanovic's team as well as her younger brother Milos, eached donned one of her dresses and made the memorable trip.

The announcement of Brynes' departure arrives nearly seven weeks after Ivanovic cut ties with coach Craig Kardon.

The 2008 Roland Garros champion split with Kardon after about four months together.

The three-time Grand Slam finalist resumed working with the adidas player development team — Groeneveld, Darren Cahill and Gil Reyes — on a part-time basis during Eastbourne and Wimbledon.

Ivanovic produced the best results of her career working with Groeneveld, who coached her to the World No. 1 ranking and the Roland Garros title. The 21-year-old Serbian won three titles last season — Indian Wells, Roland Garros and Linz — but has reached just one final this season, falling to Vera Zvonareva in the Indian Wells final. Ivanovic lost to Victoria Azarenka, 6-2, 6-3, in the fourth round of the French Open. The 2007 Wimbledon semifinalist advanced to the round of 16 at The Championships, and retired while trailing defending champion Venus Williams, 1-6, 0-1.

"I think in every person's career there is always up and downs. It's just important to, you know, catch yourself and, you know, don't be too tough. Because, you know, loss is a part of the game," Ivanovic said. "You just have to accept them and don't make them your defeats. Try to work hard. Use it as incentive to work even harder and achieve even greater things."

Earlier this season, Ivanovic struggled to locate her toss that sometimes strayed wide right and other times floated to her left like a stray clump of confetti cascading wildly in the wind. Both Ivanovic and Fed Cup teammate Jelena Jankovic held the World No. 1 rank last season and both have yet to play their best tennis this season. Ivanovic has said learning to cope the challenges that come with the top spot is part of the learning process.

"It's also very personal, but I think it's also a matter of accepting you're not going to feel great and try to work through these tough times," Ivanovic said. "You know, we really did so good for a long time. Also, it takes time to actually realize this and accept it that, you know, we're one of the top players. It's completely different, because in Serbia, we don't have such a great history of tennis. We didn't have opportunity to talk with any top players before, you know, what it takes to get there and to stay there. So we have to sort of go through it on our own. When you are at the top, you don't realize that it's even harder to stay there. That's something we have to probably accept."