Former world number one Ana Ivanovic feels her career is back on track after a slump in form which saw her world rankings drop.

Ivanovic arrived at Wimbledon last year as the French Open champion and new world number one, but lost in the third round to Chinese wild card Jie Zheng and then failed to win back-to-back matches in her next five tournaments.

The Serbian slipped to fifth in the rankings by the end of the year and is currently 12th, and also lost in the first round of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Eastbourne.

But the 21-year-old is through to the third round at the All England Club this year after yesterday's 7-5 6-1 victory over Italy's Sara Errani, and insists she is heading in the right direction.

"I'm very happy on the court at the moment," said Ivanovic, who will face Australia's French Open semi-finalist Samantha Stosur in the last 32.

"I think that's what has made the big difference because there was a time when I was not really happy being out there because I didn't feel confident and I didn't feel comfortable, I felt I didn't have the tools to deal with certain things.

"Maybe it was because I wasn't practising in the right direction and I went a little bit off the track there. But now I feel I'm putting the things in place that need to be taken care of and I feel I'm on the right path and that gives me confidence."

Asked if going through a bad patch has made her a stronger person, Ivanovic added: "For sure it did. Up until last year, my career was always going up and my rankings were always improving.

"Then once I got to the top position it had some setbacks. It was a little bit hard for me to accept it. I just thought it's always going to be on the up and it's always going to be better and better but it's not always the case.

"You learn how to accept some losses and it makes you stronger and makes you appreciate wins even more."

All of the seeds in action on Thursday made it through to the third round, with defending champion Venus Williams, top seed Dinara Safina and fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova all winning in straight sets.

Today sees the bottom half of the draw in third round action with eighth seed Victoria Azarenka taking on 28th seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania in the second match on Centre Court.

Fourth seed and Olympic champion Elena Dementieva faces fellow Russian Regina Kulikova on Court One with former winner Serena Williams out on Court Two against Italy's Roberta Vinci.