Ana Ivanovic KOs Serena Williams

“I was in a little bit not the best place in my mind,” Ivanovic said after the match. “2010 was a little bit hard in the beginning. But you just keep fighting because this is what I love to do and this is what I’m best at. I still am so young and I deserve a better chance and a better shot at it.”

“There were moments in the match where it could have gone either way,” Ivanovic said. “I could have just made few more errors. But I really just believed in my game and stepped up when I needed to. I had to break a spell — fourth round — and what’s the better place to do it than here against such a champion?”

Ivanovic credits her new Serbian team for her recent spate of positive thinking and belief. After years of high-profile coaches, including Sven Groeneveld, Heinz Gunthard and Nigel Sears, she brought in a new team and the end of last year, headed by coach Nemanja Kontic.

“Sometimes a coach can look good on paper,” Ivanovic said earlier in the week. “But when you team up with someone, it doesn’t work out that way. I really tried to also listen to a lot of people’s advice. It wasn’t always the right choice. I made some mistakes because of this.”