TENNIS
Nicholas Wood in Split
Goran Ivanisevic brought Split to a halt on Tuesday. Just over 24 hours after claiming the Wimbledon title, the rank outsider went home to a welcome never seen before in Croatia.
A crowd estimated at 150 000 thronged the port as the new champion entered the port by boat, accompanied by a flotilla of well wishers.
After superstitiously refusing to shave during the Wimbledon fortnight, he had removed his beard. Then he stripped down to his underpants and put on a New Jersey Nets number three shirt belonging to his late friend Drazen Petrovic, the basketball star to whom he dedicated his Wimbledon victory.
Among those most keen to see him was his mother, who was banned by Ivanisevic from attending Wimbledon on the grounds that she brought him bad luck.
“She was at Wimbledon three times before when I lost the final, so I told her things had to change,” he said.
But it was the reaction of hundreds of thousand of ordinary Croats not usually gripped by tennis that underlined the importance of his victory.
Many Split resident were keen to stress this was a victory for Dalmatia, the local region.
“Dalmatinski dispet,” was a phrase often repeated by the crowd. Loosely translated it means Dalmatian spite, or the will to win whatever the odds.
“Without dispet any other player would have given up tennis years ago,” said a man who gave his name as Jonny. “But dispet has kept him going on until he won.”
l Venus Williams beat Belgian teenager Justine Henin to successfuly defend her women’s singles title.