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Biofile Goran Ivanisevic Interview
14 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
By Scoop Malinowski
Status: Former Wimbledon champion. Winner of 22 ATP singles titles, nine doubles, and nearly #20,000,000 in career prize earnings. Reached ATP World Tour career high ranking of #2. Olympic bronze medalist in singles and doubles in ’92. Reached final of French Open doubles in ’90 (with Korda) and ’99 (with Tarango). Won Davis Cup with Croatia in 2005 and Hopman Cup in ’95. Currently coaches US Open champion Marin Cilic.
DOB: September 13, 1971 In: Split, Yugoslavia
Residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco
First Tennis Memory: “Oh, it was a long time ago. When I picked up the racquet and I got to play. Best memory.”
Tennis Inspirations: “McEnroe.”
First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered: “Ivan Lendl. Junior French Open. I mean, I saw him, he was standing in front of me. I was shocked [smiles]. Seeing Lendl live, in front of me. Unbelievable.”
Greatest Sports Moment: “Probably winning Wimbledon (2001).”
Most Painful Moment: “Losing a couple of finals of Wimbledon (1992, 1994, 1998).”
Strangest Match: “I mean, every match of mine was weird and unusual. So my whole career was that [smiles]. Strange but nothing spectacular.”
Why Do You Love Playing Tennis: “It’s a great sport. It’s really fun, great sport. And it’s one on one, nobody can help you.”
Funny Tennis Memory: “When I run out of racquets. Because I broke all my racquets. So I had to stop the match. And it did not happen to anybody, only to me [smiles].”
Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: “Football, I mean soccer.”
Three Athletes You Like To Watch & Follow: “Usain Bolt. LeBron James. (Christiano) Ronaldo.”
People Qualities Most Admired: “Honesty. No more honesty. They’re all bull******* too much. To be more honest.”
(Photo from ATP Tour Media Guide)
Croatia · Goran Ivanisevic · Head tennis · Ivan Lendl · Novak Djokovic · Wimbledon
Jack · October 3, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Cilic gets blasted off the court in Beijing by Murray. A shadow of himself, compared to the USO.
These extreme fluctuations in performance are suspicious. Especially when the “ups” are during Grand Slams, and the “downs” are during the fall (where there are no grand slams).
Nadal also lost to a qualifier in Beijing. He consistently underperforms in the fall, where there are no slams. Since most fall tournaments have moved away from carpet, the speed of the courts are not an excuse.
This is the perfect time of year to “cycle down”, and it shows in a dopers performance.
Andrew Miller · October 3, 2014 at 3:38 pm
Nadal dislikes the indoor season. ‘d say that’s as good an explanation as any – he knows nothing’s on the line so he tries a little less hard. Nadal always looks at the indoor season as R&R – win a few rounds, lose, go fishing.
Scoop Malinowski · October 3, 2014 at 4:30 pm
Hard to argue with you Jack, won’t even try 😉
Scoop Malinowski · October 3, 2014 at 4:32 pm
Agree Andrew, Rafa’s probably auto piloting it through till January.
Jack · October 3, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Lance Armstrong won 7 straight Tour de Frances. He never won any of the other similar races (Vuelta de Espana, Giro de Italia). We now know that these artificial peaks and valleys were drug induced.
If a tennis player were to artificially induce peaks and valleys, their peaks would usually be between late May and early September (where three of the four Grand Slams are played). The valleys would be mid-September to mid-January (the longest stretch of the year with no slams).
The players who consistently play better in summer, than in fall are the most suspicious. Since the fall tournaments are no longer played on fast carpet, the “That player does not play well on fast courts” is no loner an excuse for sub-par performances in the fall.
Andrew Miller · October 3, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Nadal just doesn’t care about the indoor season. If he goes QF but no further at all tournaments it wouldn’t be a surprise, he’s only showing up (a) for appearance $ (I think) and (b) to maintain his ranking. Winning during this stretch is meaningless – Djokovic did it last year and it had very little impact on his 2014 results this year. Nadal probably looked at that, said to himself, yeah indoors is a joke!
Scoop Malinowski · October 3, 2014 at 8:20 pm
It all makes sense Jack.
Scoop Malinowski · October 3, 2014 at 8:23 pm
Your points make sense too Andrew. I agree, if Nadal really dedicated and applied himself to be fully motivated this segment of the season, he would conquer all. Nadal always always figures out how to master any surface and any player. There are no challenges remaining for him, only to win a few more majors and more of his beloved French Opens and Monte Carlos.
jblitz · October 4, 2014 at 5:03 am
Jack is talking out of his butt again. He’s been banned from all the other tennis boards so he has to come here to get someone to listen to his libelous smears and garbage.
Dan Markowitz · October 4, 2014 at 7:26 am
Look, it’s possible. It really is hard to conceive that a guy who got beat by Q Ball in straights two weeks ago would beat Nadal. And Cilic is suspicious, too, but the fact of the matter is that tennis is an up and down sport. A player’s performance fluctuates often on a variety of reasons.
Scoop Malinowski · October 4, 2014 at 10:01 am
Wow Dan has come to the defense of Nadal. Maybe he’ll start watching more womens tennis next )
jblitz · October 4, 2014 at 10:06 am
Klizan has given Nadal a lot of grief the other two times they played at W and FO. Won the first set both times and played close the rest of the way. The score in both matches was 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3. He’s just a player that gives Rafa trouble and Klizan was playing very well, Rafa was not, on Rafa’s least favourite surface – indoor – and Rafa was rusty. It happens.
And there are far more players who are more suspicious than Rafa but just like the Republicans do, the lies about him have been repeated so many times they have become urban myths.
Scoop Malinowski · October 4, 2014 at 11:18 am
Klizan definitely troubles Rafa, any time of year, any surface. Certain great players always seem to have their kryptonites – Sampras – Ferreira, Korda, Krajicek; Rafa – Klizan, Davydenko, Rosol, Soderling; Federer – Canas, Rafa, Djokovic, Falla; Hewitt – Karlovic, Berdych, Moya; Rios – Jiri Novak, Kafelnikov, Hewitt, Chang; Safin – Santoro; Gerulaitis – Borg lol.
jblitz · October 4, 2014 at 12:12 pm
“Rafa – Klizan, Davydenko, Rosol, Soderling;”
I’ll give you Klizan and Davydenko and add Djokovic to the list but not Rosol and Soderling.
The one match he lost against Rosol (2-1) was when Rafa played on one leg with his knee shot up with anesthetic and then had to take eight months off afterwards to recuperate the knee. His record against Soderling is 6-2, definitely not his kryptonite.
Big servers are his toughest matches nowadays even though he wins most of the time but he really doesn’t like playing against them. Shanghai should be interesting because he’s drawn a bunch of them.