Serbian Players Emerge From a Broken Country
PARIS, June 2 — For more than four hours, as he faced break points and tie breakers and a crowd of 10,000 cheering against him, Novak Djokovic refused to crumble. Source: New York Times, By JULIET MACUR
He could have easily been rattled in his third-round match Saturday against the wild card Olivier Patience, the last remaining Frenchman in the French Open. But as the crowd roared, “Olivier!” and waved French flags, Djokovic found a way to win, 7-6 (2), 2-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3.
“The most important thing for me was to be really calm and positive,” said Djokovic, who admitted to being nervous.
To do that, Djokovic reached into the past for a skill he developed as a child in Serbia. Back then, he learned to keep his composure on the tennis courts, even when NATO forces were conducting air raids in 1999 in an effort to crush Slobodan Milosevic’s government.
During those air strikes, when the warning sirens blared and the sounds of explosions echoed in the distance, Djokovic stayed outside and continued practicing. Trips to bomb shelters had to wait.
Srdjan Djokovic, Novak’s father, said that surviving hard times like those made his son stronger. “Novak was very scared then, but he never showed it,” he said. “Now he is scared of nothing.”
Eight years later, Djokovic and two other Serbian players — Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic — have worked their way into the top 10 in the world, despite the chaos they faced growing up.
All three broke into the top 10 this year, and all three were expected to advance far into the French Open. Already, they have advanced to the fourth round, and it would not be a surprise if at least two of them made the semifinals.
“I think we’re all very good fighters and we have a tough mentality, so I think that’s what we probably have in common,” said Ivanovic, 19, who defeated Ioana Raluca Olaru, 6-2, 6-0, on Saturday.
She said that she and her compatriots appreciated their success more than other players, considering what they had to overcome to reach this level.
In what seems like a blink, Serbian players have become a force in professional tennis, with Ivanovic, Jankovic and Djokovic leading the way. In January, Jankovic, 22, moved into the top 10, and is ranked fifth. Djokovic broke through in March, and is No. 6. Last month, Ivanovic joined them. She ranks seventh.
Drawing from a population of only 10 million, Serbia has as many players in the top 10 as Russia and the United States. (Russia’s population is 141 million and the United States’ is 301 million.) Serbia’s top players take their jobs as ambassadors of their country seriously.
“I bet a lot of people, basically 90 percent of the people, didn’t hear about our country until maybe this moment when they saw where we are from,” said Djokovic, 20. “I think just showing up and playing and smiling and giving positive energy, it gives a lot of advantage for you in the future and for your country, as well.”
The players, dark-haired, well mannered and fluent in several languages, came to the sport differently. Each ended up training outside Serbia because it did not have proper training facilities or coaches for top-level players.
Djokovic left Serbia when he was 12 to train in Germany. Jankovic left when she was 12, too, landing at Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy in Florida. Ivanovic moved to Switzerland once the bombing ceased.
They developed an instant and inexplicable love for the sport that had virtually no tradition in Serbia. Role models were scarce. Monica Seles, born in what was then Yugoslavia, moved to the United States in 1985. Slobodan Zivojinovic remains the most famous male Serbian tennis player. In 1987, he reached No. 19 in the rankings.
Team sports like basketball, volleyball and soccer have always been more popular in Serbia, but Jankovic, Ivanovic and Djokovic chose tennis anyway. And they kept at it, even when it was challenging because of the conflict in their homeland. Their parents made sure of that.
“I think tennis saved us,” said Dijana Djokovic, Novak’s mother. “If we didn’t have tennis, we would have spent the days scared, always looking to the sky, wondering when the bombs would come.”
Ivanovic said that her parents tried to keep a sense of normalcy in the household. They squeezed in tennis practice in the morning, before bombings usually began. They never headed for the basement during air raids because it would have been too much of an interruption in their lives.
During the bombings, Jankovic and her mother, Snezana, were living in Florida, more than 5,000 miles from Belgrade, where her father and brothers remained.
Jankovic, who was already thin, lost about 12 pounds and could not bring herself to compete in a tournament in 1999 because of stress, her mother said. Day after day, Jelena would tune into CNN, which was broadcasting the targets to be bombed that day. She often recognized the buildings.
“It was too emotional for her to hear about what was going on near her home, the bombs and no electricity and the problems,” Snezana Jankovic said. “We spent many, many days crying with our American friends. At that point, tennis did not seem so important.”
Now, the sport of tennis is gaining a foothold in Serbia, although it has been slow going. The Serbian Davis Cup team convincingly defeated Georgia in March but played on a shoddy clay court inside a 1,500-seat shooting range in a far-off Belgrade suburb. During a prematch party downtown, Djokovic and the mayor played tennis on the street, as thousands of people gathered to watch.
The next Davis Cup match, against Australia in September, will be held in a 20,000-seat arena that was built for basketball but is fit for tennis. Djokovic, Jankovic and Ivanovic have become stars there.
“Tennis is becoming really, really popular in our country, and hopefully we will have many younger players coming up as well,” said Jankovic, who declined a role in a Serbian sitcom.
A plan is in the works for a national tennis academy, with 20 to 25 courts and housing for athletes. Djokovic’s parents said they had backing from a large Serbian bank and had bought the land for the project. Although that tennis academy is still a dream, the current stars have motivated other Serbian players to expect more from themselves.
Janko Tipsarevic, a 22-year-old ranked 80th, made it to the third round in the men’s draw at Roland Garros, beating the former No. 1 Marat Safin on the way.
“I am really grateful for every Serbian player that is better ranked or is a better player than me, because the thing is awaking in me this positive jealousy that if he can do it, why can’t I do it?” Tipsarevic said.
“The thing is, people have to understand that all we have in tennis here came from mud, from nothing,” he added. “There was no big tennis academy. There was no big tennis federation behind their success. Nobody was investing anything. So the only people who we can say thanks to today are our families.”
NOTES
The two-time defending French Open champion Rafael Nadal defeated Albert Montanes, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, to reach the fourth round. Second-seeded Maria Sharapova advanced by defeating Alla Kudryavtseva, 6-1, 6-4. Other seeded women who advanced were No. 14 Patty Schnyder, No. 15 Shahar Peer and No. 24 Anabel Medina Garrigues. On the men’s side, No. 16 Marcos Baghdatis was leading Jan Hajek, 6-2, 6-2, when Hajek retired with a shoulder injury.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
