Goran Ivanisevic Articles & Interviews




Online Chat With Goran - January 2001 - Do you think of yourself as a sex symbol? Goran Ivanisevic: Of course! Haha...

Ivanisevic Returns to Old Form To Defeat Kiefer in Milan - 2 February 2001 - Goran Ivanisevic battled back to beat Germany's Nicolas Kiefer in the Milan indoor tournament on Wednesday

Goran Ivanisevic Interview - 15 March 2001 - Yeah. I had to be careful because there were a lot of ballboys there, to aim it. I wanted to throw it harder. I say, "Man, be careful because a lot of traffic there. If you hit somebody, you going to be escorted out of the court and pay big fine."

Ivanisevic Seeks Wimbledon Title - 27 June 2001 - Goran Ivanisevic a three-time Wimbledon finalist, might have another run in him as he shoots for his first title.

Goran Ivanisevic Article - June 2001 - Goran Ivanisevic's timing may be a little off kilter these days as the three-time Wimbledon finalist sinks lower in the world rankings, but the Croatian's comic timing is as sharp as ever

Wimbledon 2001 - Day 1 - It's nice. You know, I got a wildcard, which is nice. They really feel for me. They behind me. They want me to do well. I'm struggling, you know, last two years. This is maybe the breakthrough

Wimbledon 2001 - Day 3 - No. I know I playing good tennis. I just have to put couple of matches together, you know. Now I'm able to put two, so we see how I going to figure out how to put three, you know. But playing great tennis, crowd behind me, just having fun there.

Wimbledon 2001 - Day 5 - I mean, the way I served today, especially first two sets, is just too good. I mean, I can't ask for more. He was just walking left-to-right. I said to myself, "If I can serve like that, he's gonna give me chance."

Wimbledon 2001 - Day 7 - In the beginning I didn't understand the way he started to play. His tactic was strange for me. You know, he stayed back a lot. He was hitting the first serve, kick first serve, he stayed back a lot of times, which was okay for me. And then didn't work for him that. Then he was starting maybe to panicking too much

Wimbledon 2001 - Day 9 - I don't know. Never happier in my life, you know, because all these other three times I was in the final, I was kind of like expected to go in the final, semifinal.

Wimbledon 2001 - 8 July - John McEnroe was my idol, you know, all my life. He was lefty; he was the player I always like to watch, you know. Great emotions on the court. But as a person, I don't think much, too much about him as a person.

Wimbledon Champion - 9 July 2001 - This is, I don't know. I think I'm dreaming. I don't think somebody is going to wake me up and tell me, "Man, you didn't win." I have to go back again. This is so great, to touch the trophy.

The Times - 2001 - The Wimbledon champion arrived home yesterday to extraordinary scenes that temporarily blotted out the pain of Croatia’s war and economic stagnation. His home town of Split was bursting with new tennis fans who arrived in convoys of cars, tractors and lorries amid scenes of national exultation.

The Times - 2001 - How splendidly appropriate it was that Goran Ivanisevic was given a wild card for Wimbledon this year. Neither cards nor people get a lot wilder than Ivanisevic. His spiritual home is among the pages of the children’s classic, Where The Wild Things Are.

The Times - 2001 - Goran Ivanisevic has written a new page of Wimbledon history by becoming the first wild card ever to win a Grand Slam trophy.

The Times - 2001 - Beard or no beard, Good Goran or Nasty Goran, ambassadors for their country don’t come much better than the new Wimbledon champion, Goran Ivanisevic.

The Telegraph - 2001 - Croatia has enjoyed sporting success before - most notably when the national football team finished third in the World Cup in France in 1998. But Goran Ivanisevic's long-awaited and longed-for victory in the men's final at Wimbledon far eclipses the footballers' efforts.

The Telegraph - 2001 - The Split personality in more ways than one - the man who had to wrestle with his fragile temperament at a crucial stage in the fourth set of his epic struggle with Pat Rafter to keep alive the fairy tale of People's Monday.

The Sunday Times - Split Personality - July 2001 - "And that is the great thing," said his father when he returned to watch the yachts rocking at anchor as the big Ancona ferry steamed into port. "Goran winning Wimbledon has made the entire nation happy. But everyone is only a hero for a day. Soon, they will be trying to charge him too much for his new house!"

BBC Sport ponders the popularity of new Wimbledon champion - July 2001 (With Pictures) - We've been moaning about the crass tedium of the men's serve-volley game for years, and here's Goran, the absolute personification of it. He's a bully of a player, with a strategy that reduces the subtle rhythms and skills of the purest non-contact sport in the world to its crudest, most brutal form.

LA Times - Goran, Goran, Gone - 9 July 2001 - It appeared as if he would never lose that distinction. Suffering from his own deteriorating shoulder, he hadn't won a tournament in almost three years. He had won only eight matches in 2001 before arriving at Wimbledon and was ranked 125th. That corresponded with the 125-1 odds against him in the tout shops.

BBC Sport - Ivanisevic passes final hurdle - 9 July 2001 (With Pictures) - I was always second. People respected me, but second place was not good enough," he said. "I am now the champion of Wimbledon, whatever I do in my life I will always be Wimbledon champion. "I can't wait to come back next year on the first Monday to defend my title. Whether I win or lose I just want to have that feeling."

BBC Sport - Ivanisevic learns to live with himself - 9 July 2001 (With Pictures) - The affection in which he is held by the Wimbledon crowd has been there for all to see this past fortnight, aided and abetted by the triumphal posturing and shirt-stripping that has accompanied his unlikely progress. "He's enjoying himself so much more, he is more under control and he doesn't put so much pressure on himself," said Chris Bailey, the BBC pundit and former British star.

The Mirror - 10 July 2001 - The biblical tresses were cut off long ago but yesterday, as Goran Ivanisevic returned to Croatia, he looked every inch a messiah.

Ivanisevic pulls out of Masters Series event - 2001 - Ivanisevic has decided to postpone surgery on his shoulder in order to meet an unexpectedly crowded tennis schedule.

You Never Know With Me - ATPtennis - 2001 - Why the media seemed so surprised that Goran Ivanisevic's luck has changed dramatically since his Wimbledon triumph, is a mystery.

Did you know? - 15 July 2001 - 10 more things you need to know about Goran Ivanisevic

The Observer - 15 July 2001 - Before and after Wimbledon - the inside story of how Ivanisevic prepared for glory by taking a month off from tennis to watch his favourite football team. Next season, he'll play for them

Nacional Magazine- 17 July 2001 - Interview With Mario Tudor, Goran's Wimbledon Trainer - Mario Tudor (23), tennis trainer from Split who as of the beginning of this year travels with Ivanisevic as his friend, sparring partner, trainer and room mate at Wimbledon, reveals what happened to Ivanisevic in the period that they worked together during the two-week tournament.

The OK! Exclusive In-Depth Interview - 2001 (With Pictures) - Goran Ivanisevic is the man who stole the hearts of the British population when he became the first-ever player to win the coveted title of Wimbledon Champion after entering the tournament on a wild card. The nation's tennis fans cheered him on as he bounced back from three previous final defeats to claim the prize he says has been his 'biggest dream' since he was a little boy.

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana 17 August 2001 - "I've been taking some painkillers, but I'm planning to have surgery at end of year," he said after rolling over Moroccan mate Younes El Aynaoui 7-5, 6-3 for a semi-final place, his first here since 1996. "I pray that everything will work out fine.

Observer - 26 August 2001 - The Croatian does not so much wear his heart on his sleeve as tear it out, drape it across the net and let it leak all over us.

Goran: Never Borin' - 29 August 2001 - "With me it's no middle," he says. "I'm up or down. I can't do anything normal with my life. Maybe I'm not normal, you know."

The US Open - 29 August 2001 - I signed the contract, so I am on the team. My dream was to have five minutes in one game. They not doing great at the moment, but I going to get my chance I think.

The New York Times - August 30 2001 - At 29, Ivanisevic has become a national hero in Croatia since capturing the Wimbledon title as a wild card this July, on the fourth time he had reached the final. He celebrated for three sleepless nights in his hometown of Split, appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman," and signed a contract to make an appearance with the city's soccer team. "Everything is becoming famous, slowly," he said.

The US Open - 31 August 2001 - Can't happen again. This is once in your life. Maybe 20,000. That kind of thing, a city of 350,000 people, almost 200,000 people came out, it's unbelievable

The US Open - 2 September 2001 - I think I was very calm, everything was under control. It's not that I play bad and I had to call, I was snapping out. I just miss some easy shots, you know

Under Water Photo Shoot - 2001 (With Pictures) - Goran didn't have the time for a real diving course, but still he succeeded in descending in the sea with a racket in his hand and showing that at a water 'court' it's also beautiful.

Tennis Masters Series Stuttgart 16 October 2001 - Interview With Goran Ivanisevic - I prove everything what I have to prove to myself. Playing tennis, having fun, breaking racquets, enjoying. Everything is there, you know. Just having fun

Interview With Goran - 24 October 2001 - I was hugging anything that came there, I was the happiest man at that moment in the world. It was great, great and I could not believe I had just won Wimbledon. Everything in those couple of seconds went through my mind, all my career, all my life and finally I achieved something that I always dreamed about.

Ivanisevic joins the army - November 2001 (With Pictures) - Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic has exchanged his tennis racket for a rifle after starting military service as a private in the Croatian army. Ivanisevic, aged 30, has to undergo a two-week military training course at an army camp near his home town of Split before embarking on six months of compulsory service.

The Telegraph - 2001 (With Pictures) - It was press-ups at 7am for the Wimbledon champion, currently the most public private soldier in the world, on the day of the big parade at Borongai Barracks. And then it was a question of survival.

The Scotsman - 24 December 2001 - The Wimbledon triumph of Goran Ivanisevic was not just the highlight of this year, it was also one of the most remarkable sporting achievements ever. Before dismissing that as hyperbole, try to think of another example of a team or individual who won a major tournament after being completely written off.

Wildcard Ivanesevic Enters Pantheon of Heroes - 29 December 2001 - With a broken down shoulder, a triple-figure ranking and a career containing more memories than aspirations, Goran Ivanisevic walked through the main gates of Wimbledon.