Greatest Sporting Stories- II: Goran Ivanisevic Wimbeldon 2001

1992 Wimbeldon .. A 21 year old croat was making waves at the all england club. He had the best serve on the tour and with his attacking play, was an exciting prospect. His game was made for grass. The ultra fast and precise serve which skidded off the surface made him very dangerous. Ivan Lendl, Stefan edberg and Pete Sampras found that out in 1992, all victims to Goran. Ivanisevic was at his first wimbeldon finals playing against another volatile youngster -A Nick Boliterri academy prodigy, Andre Aggasi who was the world best baseliner and returner of serve. But wimbeldon was Goran's surface, he was born to play here. The finals were meant to be a formality for Goran, he already pictured his hands around the trophy and had probably come up with some humorous lines to regale the crowd with in his winners acceptance speech. But the forces conspired against invanisevic that day, he couldnt convert break points in the 5th set, he double faulted twice in the last game of the match. He had served 39 aces in that match, against agassi's 37 of the entire tournament, but his serve had let Goran down when he needed it most. He lost and Andre agassi shed tears on the grass while Goran waited at the net like a zombie. He couldnt believe this was happening and till today doesnt recall the winners ceremony. Apparently for months after, Goran used to wake up screaming at night, that trophy was his and he had given it away. He would reach the final twice again but both times a much better player stood on the other side of the net - Pete Sampras. So Goran ended up with 3 runners up plates.

2001 wimbeldon: A 30 year old ivanisevic was 125th in the world and that year had the dubious distinction of being disqualified in a match as he bad broken all the rackets he had and didnt have any left to play with. The umpire was left with no choice but to smirk and award the match to Hyung-Taik Lee. He had string of early losses, a shoulder injury and in his own words his tennis strokes had lost that "sound" when the ball hit his racket. In fact he admitted that he was playing tennis since "I dont have anything else to do". He didnt even qualify for the main draw at the Aus Open and he probably wisely gave Roland Garros a miss.

But the stiff british members of the all england club in a gorgeous momentary lapse of reason gave him a wildcard entry to wimbeldon, an act of pity perhaps to let an ageing former finalist have a few more days in the sun (they probably laughed at the word sun in the context of wimbeldon weather). So Goran did arrive at SW19 and slowly but surely got the "sound" back in his racket. He beats 3 former no 1's - Carlos Moya, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin on his way to the semi-finals. The 2001 wimbeldon had already achieved legendary status as the titan of center court Pete Sampras was beaten by a pony tailed, rebellious yet effeminate looking Swiss. So Goran is playing the greatest British hope to lift the trophy - Tim Henman. He starts well but loses the 3rd set 6-0 and is making error after error when suddenly the heavens open and rain delays play. Goran comes back a changed man and breaks British hearts. Divine intervention?

The finals is now with the previous years losing finalist Patrick Rafter - one of the last pure bred serve and volleyers on the tour and a genuinely nice guy whom everyone liked. But really a wildcard going on to win wimbeldon - was that really possible. Any other player and this fairy tale would have made sense, but this was Goran - a man who played at any point in time against 5 opponents, the umpire, the crowd, the ball boys, the court and himself - his own words by the way.

The match is a see-saw of emotions a heady cocktail of emotions. I was watching this match from my hotel room transfixed for 4 hours. I couldnt believe the drama. After losing the 4th set to Rafter, I was seeing the old story - Goran falling apart, line calls, tiffs with umpires, net cords etc. He somehow hung on and at 7-7 in the 5th set, he broke rafter. But it was Goran serving for the match, that had as much certainity as an episode of Game of thrones. Did he really serve a 2nd serve ace down 15-30 in the most important game of his life? Was he starting to cry on court at 40-30 - matchpoint? Did he just serve double faults at both his matchpoints - Crazy bastard. Rafter was just a mute spectator, there was nothing much that he could do. The battle was between Goran and Goran. His 4th match-point and poor rafter nets a return (probably deliberately) and thats it Goran collapses in a heap of relief and tears. I was privileged to have witnessed a great sporting moment. Afterward Goran said that he would probably had gone to the north pole or hung himself off a bridge if he had lost. Rafter himself graciously said "All in all I am happy Goran won, otherwise he would have killed himself"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hECNfj5G_s