Four Serbian Tennis Stars in the Roland Garros Semifinals
Serbs Them Right!
With 20-year-old Novak Djokovic, the youngest man left in the draw, charging into semifinals of the Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament after winning straight sets against Igor Andreev, Serbia gets to be the only country that can boast of no less than four of its tennis stars reaching the semifinals of the world’s tournament.
In the best sportsman’s tradition, Russian Andreev praised his opponent after the match: “He has no bad shots. He does everything very well. Defending very well, serving very well. Mentally he is so strong for a young age.”
The world’s number 6, Djokovic was today cheered on by two of his female compatriots who have made the French Open semifinals on Monday: Jelena Jankovic (No. 4) has defeated Nicole Vaidisova (No. 6) and Serbia’s youngest champion, Ana Ivanovic (No. 7) beat Svetlana Kuznetsova (No. 3).
On Tuesday another Serb, Nenad Zimonjic, has also advanced to the semifinals of the same tournament in men’s doubles — reportedly, Nenad’s specialty, AND to the finals in mixed doubles. An amazing success for a a single tennis player taking part in two parallel competitions at one grand slam tournament, without a single day-break in between!
And even though Janko Tipsarevic may not be in the world’s top ten (yet!), the fact that last week he defeated former No. 1 Marat Safin to make the third round speaks of another great talent and a potential champion.
“Serbians Winning All Over the Place”
With so many exceptionally talented players reaching the very top of the world’s tournament, Jelena Jankovic was right to exclaim: “Wherever you go, it’s just Serbians all over the place, winning all these matches! It’s just incredible. I’m so proud of that and hopefully we can keep it going.”
“We can all use each others’ successes as motivation. People back home are very proud of us, and that makes us feel very good,” said Ana Ivanovic.
While most sports commentators are entirely stunned, those in the know, like the ITF president Francisco Ritti Bitti, are not the least bit surprised that Serbia has emerged as such a force in tennis, since it has a proud sporting history to tap into. “The legacy of Yugoslavian sport is basically in Serbia, more so than Croatia and Slovenia,” he said. “There is a lot of sporting talent, historically, in that region.”
Nothing For Those Who Survived NATO Bombardment
Now, as the view gets more breathtaking and the company quite exclusive in the rarefied air near the summit, the challenges become greater too, although nothing in comparison to surviving a war or two. Jelena Jankovic will face the world champion Thursday, Belgian Justine Henin fighting for a fourth French title in five years, while the world’s number 2, Russian Maria Sharapova, stands in the way of 19-year-old Ana Ivanovic, the youngest of the semifinalists.
Novak will play with either the second-placed Rafael Nadal or with No. 23 Carlos Moya, depending on which of the two Spaniards wins today’s match.
Being that all of our extra-talented, wonderful young tennis stars — after surviving the bombardment, the brutal sanctions and restrictions imposed by the outside world and the offensive, suffocating animosity that can still be felt — went on to give their compatriots around the world something to be proud of and a reason to rejoice in a rather gloomy atmosphere of further threats and entirely devious forms of aggression, they more than deserve our cheers and support... even if it turns to be somewhat inappropriate and indecently loud in the midst of sophisticated clap-clap-clapping tennis players are usually rewarded with.
Well done, all of you are winners already!