Ana Ivanovic Enlists Darren Cahill

Struggling Serb Ana Ivanovic is now working with Darren Cahill, TennisReporters.net reports (in their sidebar). Cahill and Ivanovic will meet up the week before the Los Angeles WTA stop, which Ivanovic is playing and Cahill is commentating for ESPN2.

This is definitely a good get for Ivanovic. Her career has been in total freefall ever since she won the 2008 French Open. Ranked #1 less than a year ago, she is now outside the top 10, sitting currently at #11 (up from #13 before Wimbledon). With an errant ball toss causing her problems, as well as a seemingly complete loss of her court instincts, Ivanovic needs a big, proven name like Cahill to come in and work with her exclusively, which her Adidas-hired coach Sven Groenefeld was never able to do.

Cahill, who has previously coached Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi, has not worked extensively with a WTA player previously. He's got a reputation for being a great tennis mind and a class act, which should help him communicate with Ivanovic, who seems to be completely out of ideas and weapons in many of her matches.

Ivanovic won matches back in her peak playing days by playing fairly level, consistent tennis that was driven by aggression and decent movement. After she won her slam the self-doubt came (would seem an odd time for it), and her results tanked. She hasn't made the quarterfinals of a slam in her five slams after winning the 2008 French Open, a letdown that has taken her almost completely out of the conversation about the elites in women's tennis.

She doesn't have many points to defend in this second half of the season until Linz which she won at the end of 2008 in sort of a fluke patch of good form. With Venus and Serena still not playing many smaller tournaments, there's a fair number of points out there for Ivanovic to pick up. There's a great opportunity here for Cahill to help Ivanovic get back into the top 10, and possibly even into the Year-End Championships. Whether or not he'll be able to help the struggling Serb is yet to be seen, but it least it shows she's still trying.