One of the most endearing, heartwarming, and inspirational stories in tennis, remains how Goran Ivanisevic, a Croatian wildcard entrant won the Wimbledon in 1991. To date, he remains the only wildcard entrant to ever win a Grand Slam. However, that’s not the only record in Ivanisevic’s book. In another unflattering record, Ivanisevic trumps World No.1 Novak Djokovic.
Novak Djokovic has a not-so-great record of smashing his rackets 62 times in his career. Compare that to Roger Federer, who smashed it 5 times, and Rafael Nadal who never did it. But other players like John McEnroe have often done it. Goran Ivanisevic is one such tennis star who used to always smash his rackets mid-game.
Known for his bad temperament, Ivanisevic often lost his cool during a game and took it out of his racket. However, in one particular match, he had to pay the price for it heavily. It was at the Brighton 2000 Samsung Open when Goran Ivanisevic ran out of rackets.
“Gerry I don’t have any more racquets,” said a baffled and perplexed Ivanisevic to Gerry Armstrong, the match supervisor.
Goran Ivanisevic was playing against a Korean tennis player Hyung-Taik Lee. The score was 5-5 in the first set when Ivanisevic broke his first racket. The reason was his outrage, which only got worse after that. Ivanisevic received a warning for it, but it just slid off his back. Ivanisevic lost the first set 7-5 but won the second one 7-6 (6-4).
In the third set, the game hung at 1-1 for a long time and Ivanisevic missed several break point attempts. That’s when he broke a second racket and got a second warning. When the score moved to 1-3, with the Croatian player losing two points, he broke another i.e. third racket. A third warning came as a result of it, but by this time it was too late. Ivanisevic was all out of rackets.
The game stopped at 7-5, 6-7 (4-6), 1-3, with both Ivanisevic and Hyung-Taik Lee winning a set each. But since Ivanisevic ran out of rackets, Hyung-Taik Lee received a walkover in the strangest of circumstances, and Ivanisevic lost one of the most bizarre matches in his career. This record, just like his Wimbledon win as a wildcard entry, is unmatched by anyone. Not even Novak Djokovic, since he didn’t ever lose a match as a result of smashing his racket. Not once out of the 62 times he did it.
Goran Ivanisevic did try to redeem himself during that match after he realized he had gone too far. He tried to fetch a racket from anywhere, asked for help, and finally got his doubles partner Ivan Ljubicic’s racket. But that was a Slazenger and it didn’t suit him. This strange incident and his 2001 Wimbledon win will forever be etched into the annals of tennis history. What’s odd is both these records seem to be on the opposite side of the spectrum.
