Goran Ivanisevic

Goran Ivanisevic was born on 13 September 1971, in Split, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia, to Srđan and Gorana. His father was an engineering professor at the local university while his mother was a chemical engineer. He has one elder sister, Srđana.

He became interested in sports at a young age. He played basketball and soccer as a school student before developing an interest in tennis. He won the city's scholastic championship in cross-country, even without training.

His father, a tennis player himself, recognized Goran’s potential and enrolled him in tennis school. With professional training the young boy blossomed into a very skillful player and beat his father in tennis as a 12 year old.

With time his training expenses increased manifold but his parents were determined to give him the best coaching possible. They even sold off their belongings to ensure that Goran could attend a full-time tennis school in Zagreb.

Goran Ivanisevic officially became a professional tennis player in 1988 at the age of 17. He began his career playing doubles tournaments with Rudiger Hass and the pair won a tournament during Ivanisevic’s rookie season in professional tennis.

Eventually he began to focus more on playing singles tennis. Within a year of turning professional, he qualified for his first Grand Slam tournament at the 1989 Australian Open. He won four matches in the initial stages before being knocked out by Miloslav Mecir in the quarterfinals.

He performed well over the next couple of years though it was only in 1992 that he managed to reach his first Wimbledon singles final after defeating Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl. He faced Andre Agassi in the finals and lost to him after a very exciting match.

The year 1994 was probably the best one in the tennis star’s career. He reached the Wimbledon final for the second time and was defeated by defending-champion Pete Sampras. His good performance in the tournament helped him reach his career-high singles ranking of World No. 2.

He won the Grand Slam Cup, beating Todd Martin in the final in 1995. At the Wimbledon the same year, he lost in the semi-finals to Sampras. The next year saw him winning a career-best five singles titles in a calendar year. He also teamed with Iva Majoli to win the 1996 Hopman Cup for Croatia.

He received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 2001. The same year he also won the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year and was named ATP Most Improved Player.