Croatia There is a specific category of tennis story that gets told over and over, about the player who was brilliant enough to be in finals but never quite able to win one. For seventeen years, Goran Ivanisevic was that story. Then, in 2001, he rewrote it entirely.
Ivanisevic was born on September 13, 1971, in Split, Yugoslavia — now Croatia. He grew up by the Adriatic, the son of a former handball player, and developed a left-handed serve that became, for a period, the most feared weapon in men's tennis. At 193 cm (6'4"), he had the height to generate the angles and the pace to go with it. He could make Wimbledon look effortless. He could also make it look like torture. Often both, in the same match.
Three Finals, Three Near-Misses
Before 2001, Ivanisevic had reached three Wimbledon finals and lost all three. In 1992, he lost to Agassi. In 1994, he lost to Sampras. In 1998, he lost to Sampras again, in a five-setter that went to 9–7 in the final set. The serve that could hit 230 km/h was not enough, repeatedly, in the moments that mattered most.
His career had peaks — a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world in 1994, three years in the top 5 — but also injuries and the kind of volcanic temperament that could detonate on any given afternoon. He was not a player who made things easy for himself.
The 2001 Wildcard
By the time Wimbledon 2001 came around, Ivanisevic was ranked 125th in the world and had been given a wildcard entry — the only way he could get into the draw. He was 29. The conventional reading was that this was a farewell appearance for a great player whose moment had passed.
He won seven matches. He beat Andy Roddick. He beat Carlos Moya. He beat Tim Henman in the semifinals in a match spread across three days due to rain. He beat Pat Rafter in the final, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 2–6, 9–7 in a match where Rafter served for the championship and could not close it.
The scenes in Split — the city had gathered in squares to watch on screens, tens of thousands of people — have been replayed countless times. Ivanisevic had not just won Wimbledon. He had done it after everyone had written him off, as a wildcard, at 29, ranked 125th. It is one of the most unlikely Grand Slam victories ever recorded.
The Numbers
Career titles: 22 ATP singles titles. Career prize money was not the astronomical figures of the modern era, but his serve statistics speak for themselves — he holds the all-time record for aces in a single season (1,477 in 1996), a record that has not been broken. He finished his career with somewhere north of 10,000 career aces, a number that only a handful of players have approached.
Career win-loss record reflects the volatility of his career — exceptional when the serve was landing, vulnerable when it was not. But the 2001 Wimbledon title means he closed his Grand Slam account at 1–3 in finals, which is, given the circumstances of that win, its own kind of perfection.
After Playing
Ivanisevic moved into coaching after retirement. His most significant role came as Novak Djokovic's coach, a partnership that has yielded multiple Grand Slam titles and continued Djokovic's push toward every career record in men's tennis. The server who lost three Wimbledon finals coaching the man with the most Grand Slams ever — there is something neatly circular about that.
He is still, to anyone who watched him in his prime, first and foremost the man whose serve sounded like a gunshot and whose 2001 Wimbledon remains one of the most purely satisfying stories the sport has produced.