Try to figure out who is this :-
Unless you are not a huge Tennis follower, you might unaware of this man.
The picture is of Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia having a distinct record of only person to won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon as a wildcard entry.
The sports arena is full of great comebacks and stars are born in a tournament.
Goran Ivanisevic was not the born champion and may be from the eyes of tennis experts, he was a complete mediocre player. His career was full of controversies inside and outside tennis court, some thing in the line of Shane Warne or Symonds. His behavior always came into media scanner. Audiences booing him, argument with umpires, breaking the rackets were common things in his matches. Once he said
“The every game I play there are three players in me that could surface anytime, Good Goran, Bad Goran, Crazy Goran! They can all serve aces.”
But Irrespective of his average career, mostly mediocre performances and inside and outside Court controversies, what makes him one of the greatest sportsperson I ever seen is his fighting sprits and mettle to prove himself.
First time I watched any tennis match on TV was the Wimbledon 92 final between Andre Agasi and Goran Ivanisevic and in that marathon final he finally loose the battle as well the war.
From there onwards Agasi started winning some major tennis events and became one of the tennis greats of his era and Ivanisevic became one time wonder, thanks to his regular dismal performances. In between Ivanisevic’s inconsistency continued, some time he tried hard and lost and some time he tried even harder and lost more miserably.
After 92 he reached Wimbledon finals in 94 and 98 and both the time he lost the final against Pete Sampras.
He never wanted to loose. Once he publicly cried in tennis Court after he lost again against Pete Sampras in Wimbledon 98 final. Many a time he publicly announced that he hates being the runner up in any tournament. One of his famous quotes was
“I have so many runner-up cups that I am thinking of starting my own tea shop.”
When asked what he will do now as age was not on his side now after 98 loss, he replied
“I will go and kill myself “
After Wimbledon 98 loss ,due to injuries and growing age he was almost out of the tennis arena for a while. He tried to recapture his form but failed hence his ranking. He was out of the Top 100 ranking in the summer of 2001 and only got to play Wimbledon 2001 as a wild card entry.
And this time he did something which is now a history. He defeated all the top players at that time and reached the final of the Wimbledon .After reaching the final when reporter questioned him he only said referring to the runner up trophy
“I do not want that ‘plate’ again”
And his fighting spirit did what he meant to do earlier, he won the Wimbledon 2001 in 5 sets that too at a age of 30 yrs and that too as a wild card entry which is still a record. When asked about his feeling after winning the first ever Grand slam and that too Wimbledon he answerd
“I said to God ‘If I win this one, I don’t care if I ever play again.’ I guess he was listening.”
After winning Wimbledon 2001 the very same year he took retirement from Tennis. It proved the whole world what he meant to be and through out his life he would be proud of the fact that he had achieved what he desired.
He lost many matches but i guess he won the match against his self esteem which will always say
” Advantage Ivanisevic”
Numerically Correct Bha∫kar 