Ana Ivanovic wins French Open

(BEIJING, June 8) -- Serbia's Ana Ivanovic shattered any doubts that she is worthy of the No. 1 ranking in tennis by defeating Russian Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-3 on June 7 to win the 2008 French Open and claim her first grand slam title.

By reaching the final, Ivanovic gained the top spot in WTA rankings, which will be officially released after the weekend. This is the first time a player from Serbia will be ranked the No. 1 women's tennis player in the world.

The 20-year-old has faltered on the big stage before. She won only three games in a lopsided defeat by Justine Henin in the finals of Roland Garros last year and was beat handily by Maria Sharapova in January's Australian Open final.

Not this time. On Saturday, she played with the confidence of the world's top player, defeating a resilient No. 13 seed who had upset No. 1 seed Sharapova, No. 4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 7 seed Elena Dementiava on her road to the finals.

"The last two Grand Slam finals were a great learning experience for me," Ivanovic said, as reported by the WTA tour website. "I'm only 20 and it was my third final already, so that kept some pressure off me. I was just trying to enjoy it. Obviously there were a lot of emotions inside, but until the last point I tried not to think about the occasion and just focus on my tennis. I was really happy I managed to do that today."