By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
The induction of Goran Ivanisevic into the International Tennis Hall of Fame brought back my personal most memorable moment in the career of this Croatian sports legend. Surprisingly, it is NOT him winning Wimbledon in the epic five-set “People’s Monday” final against Patrick Rafter in 2001.
For me, it was a moment that probably very few people know of and if they did, they probably forgot it. It was a dramatic five-set United States vs. Croatia Davis Cup doubles match between Ivanisevic and Ivan Ljubicic against Mardy Fish and James Blake during the 2003 United States vs. Croatia Davis Cup first round in Zagreb, Croatia and it came in what was perhaps the deepest depth of Ivanisevic’s career. After the euphoria of finally winning his first major title at Wimbledon in 2001, Ivanisevic was stricken with terrible arm problems that significantly impaired his famous left-handed sling-shot serve. He barely played in the year before this Davis Cup series in February of 2003, fighting through the tremendous pain and negative emotions he was enduring.
Andy Roddick, the top dog in American tennis at the time, pulled out of this tie with injury and exhaustion after reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open the week before, including his famous 21-19 in the fifth set quarterfinal win over Younes El Aynaoui in four hours and 59 minutes. This left James Blake and Mardy Fish to carry to the load for the United States in this tie against Ivan Ljubicic (the future coach of Roger Federer), Mario Ancic and Ivanisevic in the doubles. I go into greater depth of this match in an excerpt in my ebook “U.S. Davis Cup Team Stories – The Bryan Brothers Debut In A 2003 Season of Change” (For download here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851FR9JN/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_3WAJZ89A18PB5VVFYDWM via @amazon) below where I describe the happenings and my observations while serving as the U.S. Davis Cup team’s press officer. What made this moment so memorable for me was that Ivanisevic had barely played in a year, was in terrible pain and not playing so great the first two sets of the match, but somehow willed himself over the finish line as he and Ljubicic staged the incredible two-sets-to-love comeback over Fish and Blake to give Croatia the important 2-1 lead in the best-of-five-match series. The crowd was only about 3,000 strong as that was all the arena could fit, but they were LOUD in the intimate environment and they obviously went beserk when their national hero just lead their nation to a huge victory in this Davis Cup series.
“Her-Vas-KA” was shouted by the fans (the Croatian word Hrvaska which the name of their country in their native language) followed by three claps or three foot stomps or three drum bangs. I have a framed poster of this Davis Cup series on my wall in my New York City apartment that denotes the series being between Hrvaska and “SAD” which is the initials in Croatian for Sjedinjene Amerieke Drzave, or United States of America. The U.S. team and contingent was obviously “sad” after this doubles match and the impending tie loss to the Croatians the next day, clinched by Ljubicic over Blake, but I was fixated on watching Ivanisevic enjoy this moment of victory and redemption.
The moment that I will never forget is watching Goran step onto the now vacated chair umpire stand and forcibly ripping the microphone out of its secure position. The crowd, which were chanting and singing, drumming and stomping at an unbelievable decibel in this small compact arena, almost immediately went silent when they saw that their man, their hero, their national symbol Goran Ivanisevic wanted to speak to them.
“Hvala” I won’t forget him saying, which is “Thank you” in Croatian as I was amazed at how quickly the crowd went from pandemonium to silence. The crowd was hanging on the next words to come out of Goran’s mouth. He paused for a few more moments and then started singing some sort of song that sounded like a Croatian soccer or sports song. The crowd again went bonkers and the Croatians joined Goran in singing this song, the sound reverberating off the low ceiling of the arena. Bud Collins, the Hall of Fame tennis journalist who was there covering the match for the Boston Globe, said that he found out the lyrics to the song equated to “Let’s Stomp on the Americans” – which I am sure other countries are named and used in this song, based on what international team the Croatians beat in soccer, handball, basketball or whatever. It was one of those atmospheric moments that defined what was great about Davis Cup.
The way that this crowd were so reverential toward Goran just stayed with me. He commanded them like he was a conductor of an orchestra. It was one of his last great match victories. He would only play 24 more singles and doubles matches in his career, finally able to return to Wimbledon, the site of his greatest triumph, in 2004 to say goodbye to the sport that gave him so much.
The excerpt on this USA vs. Croatia series from “U.S. Davis Cup Stories” is found below…
Much of the buzz entering the first round series centered around the status of 2001 Wimbledon champion and Croatian sporting legend Goran Ivanisevic. Since his celebrated win at the All England Club in 2001, Ivanisevic had been plagued with injuries and underwent surgery on his left shoulder in May of 2002. Despite playing only three ATP singles matches in the previous 12 months due to the recovery from his surgery, Ivanisevic was determined to make his return against the Americans. He had played in the Heilbronn Challenger level event in Germany the week before Davis Cup, only to withdraw in the second round with tremendous pain in his shoulder.
“I couldn’t do anything, my arm hurt terribly,” Ivanisevic said. “I suffered for 10 months, underwent an operation to feel better and now this…I’ve never felt so miserable….I’ll let him give me 30 injections if that’d help. I’m in such a state that I’d go to Tibet on foot if I knew that would help,” he said. “I’m totally lost.”
Not surprisingly, he was not drawn to play singles against the Americans, but in doubles with Ivan Ljubicic. Fish, ranked No. 74 in the ATP rankings, was drawn to face No. 52-ranked Ljubicic to start the tie off, with Blake and Mario Ancic playing the second singles match.
Under a backdrop of a loud, flag-waving jam-packed crowd of 2,800 in the tiny Dom Hall Sportova, which resembled a high school gym than a major sporting arena, Fish and Ljubicic opened the proceedings. Ljubicic, with his future brother-in-law banging a drum to incite the small but overflowing and vocal crowd, took advantage of the fast conditions on the indoor carpet serving with equal abandon on both first and second serve. With Fish showing nerves in his first away Davis Cup action and his first ever Davis Cup singles match, he was tentative on his normally solid return of serve and was unable to hook onto Ljubicic’s blistering serves. Only after 97 minutes – at 1-2 in the third set – was Fish able to look at a break point – only to see it disappear behind a Ljubicic service winner. Of Ljubicic’s 70 service points, 30 were aces, 19 were service winners, while 16 were double faults. Final result, Ljubicic in straight sets by a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 margin.
“I’ve never played anybody with a serve like that,” said Fish of Ljubicic. “I couldn’t read his serve and I just didn’t have an answer…I’ve never seen a first and second serve like that.”
Blake took the court with the swagger of the team leader and jumped on and dominated Ancic, easily winning the first two sets 6-1, 6-2 before maneuvering through a third set-tie-break to square the matches at 1-1 after the first day of play.
“Davis Cup is a lot of pressure and I think it’s a lot of fun out there,” said Blake. “It’s a great atmosphere out there having a biased crowd. There is going to be pressure in every match, with varying degrees. I went into it looking it as if it was another live Davis Cup rubber.”
While there was little doubt that Fish and Blake would pair in the doubles, there still remained a minor mystery on whether Ivanisevic would take the court the next day. Said Croatian captain Nikki Pilic of Goran’s availability for the Saturday doubles, “I think he will make his decision. I have made my decision already. If he has a good arm, like today (in practice), I think he will play.”
An electric atmosphere greeted Ivanisevic as he strolled onto the court with Ljubicic on Saturday afternoon. The scene, according to Bud Collins of The Boston Globe was of pandemonium. “Horns toot, a drum rat-a-tat-tats, shrill whistles pierce the fetid air and the checker board flags of Croatia flap everywhere,” he wrote.
Ivanisevic was playing in only his second complete match since undergoing left shoulder surgery on May 15, 2002. His appearance the previous week in Heilbronn, Germany was first event since April 6, 2002, when he and Ljubicic defeated Guillermo Canas and Lucas Arnold of Argentina in the Davis Cup quarterfinal in Buenos Aires.
The rust showed early for Ivanisevic, who struggled with his serves and stumbled on volleys and returns, trying desperately to find his rhythm against the energized Blake and Fish. Leading two-sets-to-love, Blake and Fish appeared in complete control, until the third set tie-break. With the Croatians leading 4-2 in the tie-break, Fish served up a double fault to put the set on the Croatians racket with Ljubicic serving at 5-2, but Blake and Fish won both points on Ljubicic’s serve, to cut the lead to 4-5. Blake then served to Ivanisevic, who floated a sitter return that Fish netted on top of the net, giving Croatia two set points. A bungled volley by Blake then gave Croatia the third-set tiebreak.
“It was a screwy tiebreaker,” Blake said later. “Hard to believe – on a fast court, and strong servers. But I thought we were OK.” A loose service game by Fish in the first game of the fourth set, cemented the momentum change for the Croatians. At 4-4 in the fifth-set, the Croatians broke Blake at love for a 5-4 lead, with Ljubicic then serving out the incredible 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4 victory for the vital 2-1 lead.
Wrote Collins of Ivanisevic as the match concluded, “He was beaming ecstatically after hugging Ljubicic at the conclusion of their enthralling 3-hour-4-minute rebound. They leaped, danced, and pitched their rackets into the joyful crowd. Ivanisevic grabbed a microphone to thank the crowd and lead them in a victory song. The essence of the lyrics: “We stomped the Americans!”
Said Ivanisevic, “I knew it was going to be tough because 11 months, I played (one) challenger, but not a match like this. This is Davis Cup. It was really the first time in my life (I was) lost, that you don’t know what you are doing on the court. Nervous, heavy, no ideas. Then (Ivan) was telling me, ‘Come on, don’t worry it’s going to come, we need one break, we need something to happen.’ By the end of the second set, I start to play better and felt it that we were going to be OK. Blake played very good and also Fish, but Blake was the guy who was really pushing. Third, fourth and fifth set, everything open…I had great pain in my elbow, biceps, everywhere, but I said, doesn’t matter what happen, you have to finish this match….
“I was taking painkillers and I said to Ivan, ‘We are going to break Blake in the fifth set,’ because he is playing too good, he has to do something wrong, Yesterday, he didn’t do anything wrong and today almost three hours, he didn’t do anything wrong and nobody can do it. And then we had good returns in the last game and it was great….I needed this match. Wimbledon was different. I forgot how to play this kind of match. I was so happy I didn’t what to do, where to go, where to jump. I really need this match. I need to feel, because when you play Challenger and you win a match and nobody is jumping, but when you beat the USA in doubles from two sets to love down and after 11 months without this type of match, you have to be happy. … I knew I play good at the practice. I was very nervous today. Very stiff, very lost, but I knew it would break somewhere and I did it. I started to play well later….volley, return everything was great. Crowd was great…this is crowd this is what you say, when you have home advantage when we have crowd like this and crowd can lift you. Without this crowd, we couldn’t win today….I was so stiff, so tight, so much pressure. I started to feel my serve at the end of the second set. I served the best in the fifth set when I had the most pain. I wouldn’t stop for anything. Even with a broken shoulder I would play, but I think it’s going to fine. Now I can take off for the next five months.”
The match marked the first time since 1965 that an American doubles team has lost in Davis Cup after leading two sets to love. In 1965, Dennis Ralston and Clark Graebner lead Spain’s Luis Arilla and Manuel Santana two sets to love, only to lose 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 11-9 in Barcelona.
Said Blake, “They served great. They kept their heads high. They stayed positive. Goran, I think, got better as the match progressed. He served better than you can expect from someone coming off an eight-month layoff.”
Blake chose his post-match press conference to also vent at some of the Croatian fans in the crowd, who called out during points, in between first and second serves, during serves, during overheads. “I feel like I was a little disappointed with the lack of class of some of the fans, but some of them might not be tennis fans, so that is possibly to be expected,” said Blake. “It didn’t really have a place in a match that was supposed to about goodwill and friendship between countries. I feel like I was more disappointed with the referee’s decision not to do anything about it and not control the situation when that’s their job and that’s the rule. I don’t think that affected us that much besides one incident of calling out in the middle of a point, which obviously affected concentration during that point. We tried to put that behind us.”
Instead Blake chose to look ahead to the fourth rubber of the series between he and Ljubicic and, hopefully for the Americans, a live fifth rubber between Fish and Ancic. “I still see a good chance for me,” said Blake, “and I’d love to give Mardy the chance to be the hero”
On Sunday, Blake withstood the Ljubicic barrage of aces and after losing the first set, stole the second set tie-break and took a 4-2 lead in the third and appeared in complete control of the match. But Ljubicic went on a run of four straight games to win the third set, benefiting from two loose service games from Blake in the eighth and tenth games of the fourth set. Ljubicic carried his momentum to win in four sets- 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 – to clinch the tie for Croatia.
