Byzantine Blog

“Everywhere You Turn, Serbs Are Burning Bright”

You could have been offering hefty sums of money for a headline similar to the above to appear anywhere in Western mainstream media in vain for the past 15-plus years. It was not so long ago that all of the major Canadian newspapers flatly turned down ten thousand dollars from the Serbian community for an ad that would merely say “Stop the Bombing.”

Right now, however, everyone who turns to sport pages of any Western paper, big or small, is bound to be surprised with the exhilarating praises for at least one of the four young Serbian tennis champions, confidently and with an apparent ease advancing through the world’s greatest tournaments.

The fact that tiny Serbia has more top-10 players this season — three — than any nation except the USA and Russia, which also have three, is probably not a news for tennis fans any longer.

After defeating terrifying Venus Williams yet again yesterday at the famed Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament, all the while giggling like a carefree teenager having loads of fun, Jelena Jankovic, currently world’s No. 4, was praised by everyone, including her opponent who sincerely said: “She does everything well.”

When she won the Rome Tennis Masters tournament few weeks ago, 22-year-old Jelena was most concerned with spending some of her hard-earned cash (a necklace!) and, rejecting a notion of trading Serbia colors for those of the U.S., with no little pride, hailed Serbia’s rise as a power in world tennis.

Their Blood is Thicker, They Are Braver

Belgrade-born Janko Tipsarevic who scored one of the biggest wins of his career few days ago when he upset two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin tried to explain what makes the success of Serbs so extraordinary: “People have to understand that all that we have in tennis here came from mud, from nothing. No one invested one dollar into any one of our players except their parents. There was no big tennis academy, no big tennis federation behind their success. [...] If I said to my federation that I was preparing for Cincinnati or Indianapolis and would just like a hard court and some balls to use, they could not help me.”

Which must have prompted some of the best sports commentators this side of the globe to ponder the opulent facilities and royalty-treatment top Western athletes seem to take for granted. The Times tennis correspondent from Paris Neil Harman writes:

“There is a fearsome look in Tipsarevic’s eyes when he plays, an intensity accentuated by the four o’clock shadow, the piercings in his eyebrow and lip and the tattoos on his forearms, one of which is a quotation from Dostoevsky. It is not the kind of thing Mr and Mrs Middle Class from Buckinghamshire expect from their tennis players, but Tipsarevic mirrors how the sport is played and who succeeds at it now.”

“It would be too simplistic to suggest that the reason Serbia is having a purple patch and a lot of other nations — the United States are imploding as their better coaches relocate to Britain — are lashing millions on the sport for precious little return, is that their blood is thicker, they are braver, or that they come from a country that has been torn apart and is being put back together again. But these have a lot to do with it.”

I Will Surivive!

Tennis legend John McEnroe, on the other hand, doesn’t hide world’s number 6, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic who turned twenty this week, is his favorite:

“He’s going to be a real force and not just what you see now. You are going to see him in the top couple of players in the world in a couple of years, pushing Federer and Nadal. I think he’s shown the players out there that he is ‘big time’.”

“He’s cocky, but in a good way,” McEnroe said. “He believes in himself and he should believe in himself. He’s got the shots, he’s got the game, he’s got the power and he moves well. If he can add that one little element of being able to finish off opponents (from the net) he’s going to really challenge the top couple of guys.”

According to British reports, Novak has also resisted a highly tempting offer from the UK that came as soon as he turned 18, to play under the Britain’s flag. Trailing only the world’s best two tennis players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in ranking points this season, Novak is reportedly quickly turning into a fan favorite too, having a great sense of humor and loads of charm and being that, among other things, he doesn’t mind giving the world his own (rather monstrous) version of Serbia’s adopted survival-hymn.

Perhaps All the Hatred Helped

The 19-year-old Ana Ivanovic, currently world’s number 7, who scored the biggest win of her career in taking the German Open title last week, who has defeated India’s tennis star Sania Mirza few days ago and stormed through a Romanian player today at Roland Garros, is considered “ruthless” on the tennis court, and “a particular delight” off. She’s even called “the Catherine Zeta-Jones of the tennis world.”

UK Telegraph writes: “Although the daily Nato raids on her native city of Belgrade proved restrictive — not to mention frightening — for her tennis development at the age of 11, it was the attitude of the rest of the world towards Serbia after the war that Ivanovic found most distressing.”

“It was very upsetting, especially when I went abroad,” she said. “People were very suspicious when they talked to you, they wouldn’t really trust you. And we would have trouble getting visas and getting through customs. It drove me a little bit crazy. Maybe somewhere deep inside me it helped.”

So, should anyone wonder why these young athletes are not interested in trading Serbian flag for the American or British one now? “It’s very, very nice for me to see that so many people from Serbia are doing well at the moment,” said Ana. “It’s exciting for all of us because that’s motivation for each of us. I really hope that now, with all the success we have, the people [back home] will start investing more in making some facilities because that’s what we need for further success.”

Not That Different, After All

Being hailed as Serbia’s ambassadors, the four young champions are certainly the focus of attention of the Western sports fans at the moment, especially since this part of the world has discovered young Serbs—despite the two decades of relentless demonization and the honorary sub-human status—are not that much different from British, French or American teenagers after all.

Most of the Western commentators are not even trying to hide their surprise: “What is attracting attention about the quartet — in addition to their tennis skills — is how attractive and engaging the individuals are, having emerged from this troubled part of the former Yugoslavia.”

The only thing that is left for West to come to terms with now is how large of a role it played in creating Serbia’s “image problem” in the first place.