Murray tries different Australian Open preparation

Reuters: After five runner-up finishes at the Australian Open, world number one Andy Murray is taking a different approach to the season-opening grand slam at Melbourne Park next month.

The Briton is preparing for the Jan. 16-29 tournament by competing in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi rather than the mixed team round robin format of the Hopman Cup in Perth which he has favoured for the last two years.

Murray plays his first match on Friday and was his usual cautiously optimistic self when asked about finally ending his Melbourne drought.

“I’ve played really well there in the past and it hasn’t happened for me so I’ll need to do something a little bit different this year,” Murray told Reuters on Wednesday.

“I love the conditions there and I enjoy the tournament a lot, and I’ll be going in hopefully playing well and with a lot of confidence because of the way I finished 2016, so I’ll give it a good go this year.”

The 29-year-old double Olympic champion will go to Melbourne with his confidence sky-high after knocking Novak Djokovic, the man who has beaten him in four Australian Open finals, off the top of the world rankings.

The Scot won nine titles in 2016, including Wimbledon and the Olympic gold medal, and thrashed Djokovic in the final of the ATP Tour Finals to take top spot in the rankings from the Serb.However, the 24-match winning run that helped him land his last five tournaments of the season took its toll.

“Getting to number one it took me basically the whole year, right down to the last tournament, the last match of the year to finish number one, so that was really, really hard and it took a lot out of me physically and mentally,” Murray said.

“I was really, really tired, more tired than I’ve been at the end of any season that I’d finished before.”

Murray has a bye into Friday’s semi-finals in the UAE and will face the winner of Thursday’s quarter-final between David Goffin of Belgium and France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Former tennis world number one Ivanovic retires at age 29

Reuters: Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 29 on Wednesday because she no longer feels fit enough to compete at the highest level.

Ivanovic became the first Serbian woman to win a grand slam tournament when she beat Russian Dinara Safina in the 2008 French Open final, following in the footsteps of compatriot Novak Djokovic who clinched the Australian Open title the same year.

“There is no other way to say it. I have decided to retire from professional tennis. It has been a difficult decision but there is so much to celebrate,” Belgrade-born Ivanovic said on Facebook.

“I began dreaming about tennis when I was five. My dear parents backed me all the way and by the time I was the world number one and won Roland Garros in 2008, I have seen the heights I never dreamt of achieving,” she added.

Her French Open victory catapulted Ivanovic to the summit of the WTA tour rankings but she only occupied top spot for a few weeks and dropped to 22nd at the end of 2009 after a dramatic loss of form.

She returned to the top five in 2014 and reached the French Open semi-finals in 2015, but slipped out of the leading 60 this year after losing to little-known Czech Denisa Allertova in the U.S. Open first round, her final match on the WTA tour.

“I played so many memorable matches. But staying at those heights in any professional sport requires top physical form and it’s well-known that I have been hampered by injuries,” Ivanovic said.

“I can only play if I perform up to my own high standards. I can no longer do that so it’s time to move on.”

Striking a happy figure as she announced her retirement with a smile in a live address to her fans, Ivanovic also revealed her future plans.

“Don’t be sad, be optimistic alongside me. My love and my greatest thank you to all of you,” she said.

Ivanovic, the world number 63, married former Germany soccer international Bastian Schweinsteiger this year.

“I am so excited about what comes next. I will become an ambassador of sport and healthy life and will also explore opportunities in business, beauty and fashion, among other endeavours,” she said.

“Beyond that, who knows. All I can say is that I have lived my dreams and really hope to have helped others do so as well.”