Goran Ivanisevic

Goran Ivanisevic was born on September 13th, 1971 in the coastal town of Split, Croatia which is located on the Adriatic Sea. He grew up with his father Srdjan, mother Gorana and sister Srdjana. From a young age Goran excelled at many sports other than tennis which included soccer and basketball. With his talent he earned a position on the Split soccer team which he later refused in order to focus on tennis. Later Goran went to a tennis school in Split where he further developed his game. He then started to play as a junior on the international circuit.

As a player on the junior circuit Goran excelled as he accumulated many titles which included Wimbledon. He played as a junior until 1988 (age 17) when he burst onto the senior professional scene. He then earned his first title at Stuttgart in the same year. Two years later Goran was apart of the spotlight in the finals of Wimbledon 1992. He lost in an epic match to Andre Agassi which lasted five sets. Two years later Goran reached another final at Wimbledon where he lost again to Pete Sampras, this time in straight sets.

In 1996 Goran experienced one of if not his best year on the tour. He exploded on the tennis scene during the first half of the year to win 4 titles in seven finals. He won 5 titles in all out of nine finals for the whole year.

Going into 1998 Goran again had finished in the top ten and all seemed well as he defended his Croatian Indoor title for the second time in a row. But suddenly something lacked in his mind and game. Goran started to lose early in some tournaments including the first round of the Australian Open. By the French Open in may Goran had fallen to his lowest ranking since he had started playing on the tour, 24th. . But Goran felt the pressure and knew that he couldn't stay in the slump forever...

Then Came Wimbledon of 1998, again as what had happened in previous years at this tournament, Goran was played off by the press as a longshot to win the tournament... sort of a dark horse of sorts... But, that year, at this tournament Goran would come closer to the title than he ever had come before. Goran managed to ignore the press and again made it to the finals of the tournament for the third time. This time however he would playing Pete Sampras, the man who dismissed Goran easily from the 1994 Wimbledon finals.

Goran at first held on and played intelligently against the "most intelligent man in tennis" Pete Sampras, winning one out of the first three sets... then Goran took the fourth...  Goran looked as well as ever, but all of a sudden his
body seemed to go out, the exhaustion from the previous marathon with Krajicek had taken its toll on Goran. He ended up losing 3-6 in the final set... Goran was devastated...

Ever since that match Goran has not been the same player... Although he still jokes and is a wisecracker he hasn't had the same results, not winning any tournaments for the past two years and having a losing record. Indeed it may look as if Goran may be fading... But you never know, He is always making waves and recently has had better results... Maybe the new millennium will bring new fortunes to Goran.