Croatia – winner of the 2018 Davis Cup

Take good care of this stamp! Without it, one of the biggest successes in Croatian sport may be forgotten. And this success has been doubled - our tennis players have lifted the "salad bowl" twice, in 2005 and 2018, which marked the last year of holding the competition under the original formula. The "salad bowl" formula: let's quickly explain this phrase for future generations, to avoid confusion. In 1900 Dwight F. Davis, a Harvard student, commissioned a large silver bowl, originally envisaged for serving salad, as the prize for the winner of a tennis match between the USA and Great Britain. Little did he know that this would make him immortal and his formula of a match between nations was and is one of the most difficult on the path to victory. The magnetic attraction of the Davis Cup has enchanted almost the entire world. This is why it has become harder and harder to reach the top; it required a national team that would play four times a year, and the players had to be healthy, ready to travel around the world, adapt to new surfaces, time zones, altitudes and loud supporters in five to six days. The Davis Cup has become the most unpredictable competition. Tennis players, who are usually loners, became part of a team; they played for their country, their colleagues and their pride. There were no favourites and the underdogs became invincible in three days. Winning the Davis Cup became equivalent to winning an Olympic medal or a Grand Slam tournament. Not many of them have reached that end, and even rarer are those cases of repeating the success through different generations of tennis players. This has never been the case with a country as small as Croatia. In 2004, Nikola Pilić led Croatia into the Davis Cup project. First, they had to reach the world group, and in 2005 they began their victory march. Ivanišević, Karlović and Krajan, Croatian seniors, prepared the field for two geniuses, whose determination and energy vanquished their opponents. The most successful nation of the Davis Cup was the first to fall, on its own court in Los Angeles, USA. They had believed they would reach the top with a superteam comprising Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and the Bryan brothers. It was supposed to be a walk to their 32nd title. But they walked home defeated. Ivan Ljubičić and Mario Ančić were Nikola Pilić's trump cards. The stunned Americans saw them off from Los Angeles saying: "Now you have to win the Cup for us as well, to make it easier." Croatia's next opponents were Romanians, and then Russia, with its strongest players, but Ljubičić and Ančić were a dream duo. Ljubičić had become invincible, both individually and with Ančić. Impressive - with only two players. However, in the Davis Cup, being the favourite is the worst. Croatia carried the burden of being the favourites into the finals held in Bratislava. Slovaks Dominik Hrbatý and Michal Mertiňák should not have posed a threat, but... On the morning of the third day, Ljubičić woke up with a stiff neck, but he did not want to bow out. This was his only Davis Cup defeat that year. The fifth duel, in which Mario Ančić would decide our fate, was the decisive one. Ančić remained cool, cold and superior in his victory against Mertiňák, and won the Davis Cup, achieving mega-success. The new kids on the block watched the finals. They saw themselves holding the silver cup. They may not have realized it, but a decision had been made. They were brought together by a member of the 2005 team, Željko Krajan. However, this time there were more than just two of them. This scenario was far crueller. The team was led by Marin Čilić, Borna Ćorić and Ivan Dodig. They received help when they needed it, but the road to victory was significantly longer. In 2015, they were defeated in the first round; in 2016, they lost the finals in Zagreb by only six points. In 2017, Croatia lost the first round. And then came 2018 - they felt it was their year and they were mature enough to reach the end. The first round was played in Canada, followed by Kazakhstan, and then the United States of America. They were joined by Mate Pavić, as well as Galović, Škugor and Mektić. The finals were held in France. And again, typically for the Davis Cup, instead of a drama, Croatia was impressive in their victory. Since the first competition held in 1900, only ten nations have won the cup twice or more. In 106 years of the competition, there have been only 15 winners. This stamp marks the end of this format of the competition. From now on, everything will come down to the final tournament, which will last for one week at the end of the year. It is a pity we won't be able to watch the old Davis Cup formula again. Tradition and the most difficult challenges had to give way to money. Mićo Dušanović retired sports journalist