Ana Ivanovic lost to Sam Stosur, 6-3, 6-2, on Thursday at the LA Women’s Tennis Championships. After the match, the always-thoughtful Ivanovic was disappointed, but still feeling positive about her first tournament back since Wimbledon:

“I really went through a lot in the last couple of months,” said Ivanovic, who could be referring to a number of traumatic events, including dropping out of the top 10 in June, hiring and firing and rehiring coaches and fitness trainers, and crashing out of  Wimbledon with an injury. “But it made me stronger. I know which direction I want to go. I feel like all I need is a little more matches and a little more competition.”

Ivanovic, who admitted to pushing herself to the point of exhaustion and finding herself “a little over-trained” this season, says she’s finally taken control of her tennis destiny:

I have to be more open and communicate. Because in the past I just felt like maybe I would hurt my coach by saying “Look, let’s just take it easy” or I would get judged by him because I’m not tough enough.

I learned that I can speak a little more open and can say to them (my coaches) “Look maybe I need to take a couple of days off.” It’s working really well for me. I have the feeling, you know, that I’m not here to please them.

It’s no accident that Ivanovic sounds like she’s spent some time with Dr. Phil (or Freud.) Except in Ana’s case, the therapist’s couch is a bench at Borders:

“I still like (reading) psychology, and almost every day since I’ve been here I go to Borders and just sit and read there. I always find myself wandering around that area (psychology section,) but I force myself to sort of go back and read something else. Because it gets you thinking a lot and I’m already doing that more than enough. So I should just read some fiction maybe.”

Ana’s current reading material? John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster.