CROATIAN VICTORY - DAVIS CUP 2005

The first Davis Cup match was held in the long bygone year 1900 and is the oldest team competition in the history of sport. The first winners were the Americans and apart from them only ten other countries won the tempting and renowned victorious trophy. However, after December of the year 2005 and the dramatic sports events in the Slovakian Bratislava, this list of the chosen ones is now longer by another name - the name of Croatian tennis players. In Bratislava, the Croatian national tennis team under Ivan Ljubičić and Mario Ančić led to a 3 to 2 victory over Slovakia and thus became Davis Cup winner for the first time in the history of the Davis Cup contest. The competitions have been played throughout the tennis season, and started with the Croatian victory in the Los Angeles suburb against the Americans (3-2) and was completed with the grand finals where our tennis players realized one of the greatest Croatian sports achievements in history. Talk about tennis means talk, along with football, about the most wide-spread world sport. When we talk about the Davis Cup, we talk about some hundred national teams who are out to pursue this great trophy. Taking into account all the particular details, because the Davis Cup is in terms of the vocabulary of tennis identified with the world football championship, Croatia has in this year realized every tennis player’s dream. Individual sport turns at this moment into a team sports competition that always awakens most powerful emotions. At the time when Goran Ivanišević was part of the world’s tennis elite, Croatia has already had a strong national team and was well-known as a dangerous opponent in the Davis Cup contest. And when Croatia could not make it against a massive number of strong teams, Ivanišević left a message behind: tennis players in Croatia who will be able to win the Davis Cup will soon “come of age”. Though this might have sounded ambitious, it has come true. Led by Ivan Ljubičić and Mario Ančić, the two players who are presently among the first twenty players in the world, Croatia beat four tough opponents and became part of the prominent tennis family. The first obstacle was the most difficult one: departure for the American Carson where the best world team was expecting them. Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi and the brothers Bryan were waiting for the Croatian team in a rather relaxed mood, believing that it was going to be an easy “undertaking” ending in their victory. However, it was then that Ivan Ljubičić became the first tennis player in history who had won two singles for the Davis Cup on American ground. Both Roddick and Agassi lost to him, and by winning the doubles match Croatia announced to the world that they have taken the position of one of the Davis Cup favourites. Two matches followed at home. The first and easier one was the contest against Rumania (4-1); later they won against Russia (3-2), though it was a tough contest to expect, despite the non-arrival of their best tennis player, Marat Safin. The days in Split were very dramatic in this contest between Croatia and Russia, but the Croatian “storm” was again provoked by Ivan Ljubičić with two victories in the singles and one in the doubles match with Ančić. What was waiting for the Croatian tennis players was the Davis Cup final. They departed for Slovakia to their friends, the Slovak tennis players in Bratislava. In the exceptionally pleasant environment of the Sibamac arena the finals lasted for three days, when the Slovaks put in maximal energy to reach a dramatic final. The failure of Karol Beck, their second best tennis player to compete seemingly opened a great opportunity for Croatia. However, the first Slovak tennis player, Dominik Hrbaty ran all over the Sibamac arena and “threaded” both Ljubičić and Ančić on his racket like beads on a string. The whole of the final was waiting for the outcome of only one match – the last rubber match of the finals – Ančić playing against Mertinak after the result of 2 – 2. Mario Ančić entered this last decisive rubber with great nervousness as he had won only one single match in the preceding season (the one that was not decisive against the Rumanian Hanescu). On the other hand Mertinak was quite conscious that he had nothing to lose in this match but could only become the everlasting Slovakian sports hero. But his cool head, precise hand and great heart of Mario Ančić had not failed him. Everything was completed in three sets and the Davis Cup trophy was ready to have a new name engraved. The name of Croatia, as the new, current winner of the Davis Cup. Stipe Karađole