Goran dear Goran. Review on Goran Ivanisevic

Much has been written on Goran Ivenisevic over the last few weeks following his retirement from the game after he bid good bye to the game from the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon. The following lines just my appreciation to one of the great characters that the game of tennis has seen. All of us have heroes, some become hero by their achievements, and some simply for trying. At times we have heroes who may not be the most celebrated, but in their own way leave trail that none before them had ever walked. Goran Ivenisevic is by no means is my greatest tennis player, and yet he was a persona who was unique and walked a path to leave a trail.

A look at his career record tells you that he had won 22 tour titles including one Wimbledon championship (2001) appearing in 42 title clashes spanning 16 years as a professional on the men's tour. Surely for someone as gifted as he was and with one of the games biggest serves at his prime, you would expect to see at least a few more grand slam titles under his belt, which was not be. But that was the quintessential Goran Ivanisevic for you! Who always would promised more only to falter along the way, always coming close and yet unable to run the final stretch.

Yet for the past decade or so there was not a man unpredictable on the men's tour as he was and yet he was no less a popular man along the likes Sampras's and Agassis, not because he entertained the crowd always with his booming aces which went past his opponents faces like a lightning but he had the most funniest things to say on press conferences all the time. Ask any scribe on the tour and they would tell you who their favorite was, for nobody had the mind of Goran Ivanisevic and as one writer put it aptly nobody in the game thought the way Goran did.

Fittingly when asked in a post match conference on how the men's tour would be now that he has retired from the game he replied '' You should wait for another Goran to come along''. How much I yearn to tell him, that yes there may come other men who would remind us of Goran, but men like him are a rare breed.

When much of the world had written him off, he found the courage to comeback and pull of the dream that he had in his mind all his life, for how many men would have had the belief to think that they would win the grandest of all the Slams in the game of tennis, when they have past their prime.

Yes he had to wait for the man who owned the hallowed lawns for a good part of a decade with the pride of a roman emperor to say that his rule was over and when he did, Goran knew that it was his only chance for the crowing glory that he grew up dreaming about in the streets of Croatia. But when the moment of truth, of destiny arrived it was as if the gods had finally answered a call that they choose to ignore for many years and on one fine day woke up to it in a manner fairies wake up for the virtuous. Wasn't it a fairy tale? and consider Wimbledon would be the last title he would win in his career, what would you call it profound irony or divine intervention!

Indeed we may to wait to see a character who would simply make us awe with a breathtaking volley of a ground stroke and in a moment could make our heads drop by making the silliest of errors. For there have been men, who have were more temperamental than Goran was in the likes of Beckar and the great spoil brat John MConroe. But none manage to see the funny side of things as Goran could.

In a decade dominated by the great ( or the greatest ) Sampras, you could only say that Goran was a bit unlucky, but if you ask the man himself he would have the least regret than anybody else will, for he enjoyed the game with his heart and soul. That is what we will remember Ivanisevic for there was never a dull moment weather he playing or talking, weather he was hitting winner to moan in ecstasy or to grunt in agony.

Goran Ivanisevic... Only characters like you make sport the spectacle that it is in an otherwise monotonous world.!!