[新聞] Serbians come up big at Aussie Open
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Serbians come up big at Aussie Open
Right now it must be hard to find a single citizen of Serbia who does not
like tennis and who did not watch Novak Djokovic on Sunday become the first
from his country to win a Grand Slam singles title.
While Ana Ivanovic (runner-up) and Jelena Jankovic (semifinalist) both came
close to making history in Melbourne in the women's singles, it was 'The
Joker' who ultimately became the first to fulfil the promise they have all
shown over the last couple of years.
If you add Nenad Zimonjic's mixed doubles success, plus Janko Tipsarevic's
epic effort against Roger Federer earlier in the tournament, there is plenty
for Serbia to celebrate. Bearing in mind that thousands packed into Belgrade's
parliament square last June when the country's top players were all honored
at an emotional City Hall reception following their performances at the
French Open, heaven knows how Djokovic will be received this time on his
return back home.
"The champion of Australian Open Novak Djokovic is to be given a glorious
reception on his return to Belgrade. He's definitely earned it," said Zoran
Alimpic, the acting Mayor of Belgrade.
"The problem is we still don't know for sure when they are scheduled to return.
Nonetheless we're all set for a major reception in front of the City Hall.
It's possible we move site to the plateau outside the former Federal Assembly
for more room."
Had it not been for Maria Sharapova beating Jankovic and Ivanovic back-to-back
to win the women's title, Serbia's delight would have been doubled. But while
their turn should still come in the future, there is no doubt that the 20 year
-old Djokovic has now proved himself a world beater who, fitness permitting,
should go onto win many more majors in the decade to come.
"I think everybody was really surprised with the amount of the players we pro-
duced from such a small country with no tennis tradition," Djokovic said. "So
I think it's still unexplainable, because there was no system whatsoever in
our country for tennis and we didn't get so much support needed in that stage,
mostly needed.
"We've always had I can say strong support from our closest family, from our
parents. And I think this hunger for success and the times and things we went
through made us stronger."
Two years ago, Djokovic was ranked No.81 in the world and, after last year's
Australian Open, where he lost to Roger Federer in straight sets in the fourth
round, he was still outside the world's top 10. But as we now know it did not
take long for him to break through that barrier and by the time he had made
back-to-back semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon he was up to third
in the world.
Becoming the first player to beat the world's top two - Federer and Rafael
Nadal - in the same tournament, as he did in the Montreal Masters Series in
August, was a huge breakthrough.
Although Federer got the better of him a month later in the U.S. Open final,
Djokovic learned much form that match which helped him triumph in Melbourne -
not only in beating Federer for the first time in a Grand Slam but then dealing
better than he had before with the unique pressures of a Grand Slam final (let
alone the huge threat of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who also seems destined for major
honors in the future).
Djokovic leaves Melbourne, as he arrived there, still ranked third in the
world. But his sights are now set higher. Yet for all the euphoria and ex-
pectation now being heaped upon him, Djokovic does not belive we are witnessing
the demise of Federer and an immediate changing of the guard at the top of the
men's game.
"It's not possible that in only one tournament is changing the history,"
Djokovic added. "I played amazing tennis here so I think I absolutely deserved
to win, even against him (Federer) in the semi-finals. He accepted it in the
right way and he's going to come back in a big style. He's still planning to
be the best player in the world. We all know how good he is, we're going to
see a lot of him this year."
Appropriately the next we will see of Djokovic in action is wearing his
national colors in the forthcoming Davis Cup tie which Serbia face early next
month against Russia in Moscow.
Last September, 20,000 Serbs packed into Belgrade's Beogradska Arena to see
their heroes beat Australia 4-1 and reach the World Group for the first time.
How many of them make the trip to Moscow remains to be seen, but once again
the streets back home are likely to be deserted when the matches are televised,
with Djokovic and company sure to pose a huge threat to last year's runners-up
and former champions.
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