Ivanovic lost to Justine Henin in last year's final after succumbing to an attack of nerves and yet she suddenly finds herself the favourite to win the title on June 7 after the Belgian's shock decision to retire from the sport.

To prepare for this year's assault on Roland Garros, where action begins on Sunday, Ivanovic has concentrated on the physical challenges of playing long gruelling matches on clay.

‘I've been working a lot on my specific movement on clay,’ she told Reuters in an interview at the Sony Ericsson WTA tour event in Berlin, in the week prior to Henin's announcement.

‘The important thing has been fitness, trying to slide and this kind of thing because that's something that's going to help me. Movement on clay is a lot different to the hard courts.’

To get ready for the change in style on clay, that has meant a lot of work with her fitness instructor.

‘You have to be very strong in your core and your adductor muscles and that's something my fitness coach is taking care of. We're working hard,’ she said.

Ivanovic was speaking before she had played her first match of the season on clay.

She went on to lose in the semi-finals in Berlin to Elena Dementieva and then lost her first match in Rome 6-4 5-7 6-2 to the Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova.

 Quickly faded

If she can recapture her form from last year's French Open she will be a worthy favourite but if she is to get her hands on the trophy, she will have to get her head straight as well.

Ivanovic played so well in six games at last year's French Open, particularly in her victory over Maria Sharapova, only for her form to desert her in the final against Henin.

At times she seemed scarcely able to toss the ball up for her serve and quickly faded to a 6-1 6-2 defeat but still, her good memories from Paris far outweigh the bad.

‘I'm very excited to be going back,’ she said. ‘I have really nice memories from last year and it was great achievement for me.

‘It was also kind of unexpected so this year for sure I'm looking forward to taking one more step and maybe winning the title but it's going to be very hard and I'm ready for that and I've been working really hard so hopefully I can achieve my goals.’

Looking further ahead, Ivanovic said one of her other main goals from the season was to do well at the Olympics in Beijing and learn from her first experience of the Games.

‘I'm going, yes,’ Ivanovic told Reuters. ‘The Olympics are very important and also I feel very thrilled to have the opportunity to participate and represent my country in such an event.

‘I'm very excited about the challenge and experiencing it for the first time. I'll stay in the athletes' village and I'm looking forward to that, just to see the other athletes and see how they practise and I think it's going to be very exciting.’