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Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the number of professional tennis players representing the country of Serbia in Grand Slam tours, the WTA and the ATP world tours.
Serbian players have included Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Janko Tipsarevic, all whom have made it in the top ten in their professional tennis careers.
Novak Djokovic is the best known Serbian player. At the tender age of 20 he has won a number of top ranked tournaments but has yet to win the major tournaments. The other Djokovic brothers are on the rise as well, forming part of the Serbian junior teams, travelling on the junior circuit.
Janko Tipsarevic ranked 80 deserves to be mentioned too. He may not currently be in the same class as Novak but he has also won the odd tournament including the Zagreb Open (read it and weep Croatians!) last month. With all the focus on other Serbian tennis stars you have to feel for the guy.
Jelena Jankovic, in the last year her progress has been remarkable and she looks like a changed player. Two years ago Jankovic looked to have serious problems, her on-court rages neither helped spur her on to win following points or win over crowds.
Australia’s current tennis players have been on the circuit for more than twenty years, some recent and some now retired. The likes of Lleyton Hewitt, Chris Guccione, Sam Stosur, and Alicia Molik have all represented Australia in the David Cup, Federation Cup and the four major grand slams around the world, with little to know success on the court, except Sam Stosur who made it to the grand final of the French Open in 2010. Lleyton Hewitt has been all the way to number one in the world back in November 2001, however currently stands at 32 in the world. Lleyton should be retiring soon as his age and ability to perform on the big stage dramatically deteriorates.
In comparing Serbia to Australia; they have been on the circuit less than a decade and have already victoriously celebrated two Australian Open titles. As well as two Australian Opens the Serbian fans have celebrated a finalist in Novak at the 2007 U.S open, going down to none other than the Swiss master, Mr. Roger Federer. It is something about those Europeans which the Aussies just cannot get a handle over.
What has happen to Australia’s performance at our very own grand slam event, the Australian Open? The last men’s champion was dated back to 1975, going to Mark Edmondson in a four set battle; our latest finalist was current player Lleyton Hewitt who lost to Marat Safin of Russia in 2005, going down three sets to one. On the other side of the fence, our last women singles champion was Chris O’Neil in 1978, which occurred around the same time of Mark’s famous win.
Australia from the late twenties to seventies were successful in the four major tennis grand slams, the champions of our modern game; the Crawford’, the Rosewall’s, the Laver’s, the Emerson’s, the Newcombe’s, the Conner’s are all our iconic and legendary Aussie tennis heroes. Since the eighties to the 21st century, countries have over powered our abilities to dominate in the ever-growing pace of the game, so much so that countries that have only ever existed, or become known in our great game, since the new millennium are now more dominant in success and triumph, especially in the ranking system. One of these countries is in deed, Serbia.
Why? The promotion we give our game is influenced by our nation’s culture and diversity. Australia is so built upon the Australian Football League (AFL) and the National Rugby League (NRL); we unfortunately ‘sideline’ the recognition of tennis. The ability to become professional is intense, as other countries fight for success against us, so we fall behind.
Serbian Tennis has been the story of our current game. A grand slam winner still developing on the court, a female player showing upmost respect to the game, striving for a positive attitude to her career, and a female player dubbed the ‘hottie’ of our game. With these attributes this should help ensure that Serbia will have more tennis stars in the future. Australia from this point onwards can only learn from other countries success. We have done this, through the development of Bernard Tomic, a young junior, aged just seventeen who turned pro in January 2009. With this excitement in Tennis Australia we can only hope for followers to join him on his journey as the like of Hewitt bowl out and others resume their career striving success and personal achievement.
This begs the question in regards to the rise of Serbian tennis which can be said has been inspiring. What lessons can be learnt for Australia as we look into the future?”
We need to continue to promote the benefits of the sport, bring in awareness for developing our juniors to being the best they can possibly be Australia’s success in the future. This can be achieved through funding by the state and federal governments. This will allow our professionals to travel the globe in order to receive the best coaching and excellence in treatment and fitness.
Serbia will continue to dominate over other countries, like Australia because they have world class facilities, academies dedicated to improving their game, they have a solo sport to remain focused on and they strive for professionalism in their own culture. It can also almost be measured on tennis courts, where fresh batches of little kids are being brought to train by parents, suddenly spurred into ambition by earning reports from Djokovic, Ivanovic, Jankovic, even Tipsarevic and Zimonjic.
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