But Ana's future was transformed by a fateful meeting with a tall, 36-year-old Swiss businessman with a passion for tennis.

Had it not been for Dan Holzman, co-owner of a vitamins company valued at £250 million, Ana would not be melting hearts at Wimbledon.

"I was taking lessons from a Serbian coach at a private tennis club in Basle," recalled Holzman, who is married with two young children.

"He told me about a girl at home in Belgrade who had an exceptional talent but had no resources to improve. She was Ana Ivanovic, who was then the 22nd ranked junior player in the world, at the age of just 14.

"I agreed to meet Ana and her family, but that proved to be difficult ? in 2002, it was still hard for Serbs to get visas to travel abroad. But after several weeks, Ana and her mother came to Switzerland."

Remembering the day they met, Holzman said yesterday: "I asked Ana what she wanted from life. She looked me in the eye and replied, 'I want to be Number One in the world.'

"I was smitten at that moment. I took a quick decision that I would help her with financial assistance.

"I understood that Ana was a modest, humble, well-educated girl with a caring family but that her parents were living on just a few hundred euros a month."

Holzman agreed to make monthly payments to the Ivanovic family, allowing Ana to employ a respected coach for the first time and creating the opportunity to venture out into mainstream junior tournaments that had been previously out of her range.

But the money was not a donation ? it was an interest-free loan which eventually reached £250,000. Holzman said:

"I'd always invested in shares but with Ana I wasn't following a share price, I was following a person. I just knew from meeting Ana and her family that I wanted to be a part of their dream."

Holzman provided Ana with a laptop, mobile phone and pocket money. "I wanted her to feel like a professional from that moment on," he said.

To Ana, the money ? on whatever terms it had arrived in the family's bank account ? was a lifeline from another, prosperous world beyond her belief.

"I flew to be with her at her next junior tournament in Rome," said Holzman. "She lost in the first round ? and started to cry as she left the court. She locked herself in the locker room for four hours.

"She was frightened I was going to quit. I waited four hours to tell her I wasn't going to!"

Holzman insisted: "I never placed Ana under any pressure to perform ? she did that herself.

"When on the court, she does have a killer instinct. But I do believe that you can be Number One and still be nice. Ana has never involved herself in petty jealousies, never moaned that her poster somewhere was smaller than someone else's."

Indeed, all week, Ana has been called to comment at Press conferences on her own beauty. "I'm very flattered," she smiled. "But once on court it doesn't matter how you look. It doesn't help you win points."

Holzman's gamble was inspired. Ana has so far won £1.2million in prize money ? and earned at least the same again from endorsement contracts. He remains her business manager but Ana has repaid his investment in full.

"Ana always knew that the first £250,000 she earned had to come to me," he explained.

"Of course, I never took all her prize money as she needed to live. But she has now repaid me every penny. Ana is not my only business, and I don't pay my rent through her, but I cannot think I've ever made a better business deal."

Ana received a hero's welcome when she returned from the French Open in Paris to Belgrade last month with her fellow Serbian stars Jelena Jankovic, the world number three and fellow graduate of the swimming pool courts, and Novak Djokovic.

All three had made the semi-finals of the Grand Slam event, an achievement that mocks the perennial under-achievement of British stars who ? as Tim Henman pointedly said last week ? are pampered by comparison.

The three girls were cheered to the rafters by a 15,000-strong crowd outside the Parliament buildings.

For a young woman who has suffered the terror of war, the privation of practising in an abandoned swimming pool in sub-zero temperatures and borne the stigma of being shunned at every border because of the atrocities of Slobodan Milosevic, tennis represents much more than just a game ? it provides the chance to improve the international image of Serbia.

"When I go home I see a change for the better in our country," Ana said. "Novak, Jelena and I hope our results will continue that change. We try to present the country and its people in a positive way."

 Svaka tebi čast, Mr. (izraelski ) Švajcarac!

P.S. Voleo bih da znam i ime tog "srpskog učitelja tenisa u Bazelu" koji je Holzmanu prvi skrenuo pažnju na "devojčicu iz Beograda". I njemu sleduje bonus i to kakav! Ah, kako je to lepo kad se sve sklopi... ko Rubikova kockica!