ana ivanovic began the 2008 season by reaching the semifinals of the australian open where she lost to maria sharapova in straight sets. she then managed to win her sixth title and third tier i title in indian wells, beating jelena jankovic and svetlana kuznetsova in the semifinals and finals respectively. following a mediocre pre-french open season where she failed to defend her title in berlin, she entered roland garros as the second seed and favourite. she lived up to that expectation by winning her first grand slam (and her only to date) and becoming the first serbian to reach the no. 1 spot, virtue of beating compatriot jankovic in the semifinals. she defeated first-time grand slam finalist dinara safina 6-4, 6-3. in her first tournament as the new world no. 1 at wimbledon, she was upset in the third round by chinese wildcard zheng jie. following a disappointing wimbledon campaign, she suffered an injury-marred us open series as she withdrew from los angeles and the olympics, which ivanovic described as "one of the worst moments in my career". she played only one tournament which was at the rogers cup and was eliminated in the third round. as the top seed for the us open, she suffered for the second straight major a loss to a player ranked outside the top 100 in french qualifier julie coin. she returned to form in october by winning the indoor tournament in linz as well as reach the semifinals at the kremlin cup.