Ran Out Of Racquets

Goran Ivanišević is a Croatian former professional tennis player and current tennis coach. He is one of the greatest sportsmen ever to emerge out of Croatia: a man who performed brilliantly on the world’s tennis courts over the years. He is the only man to win the singles title at Wimbledon as a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001 while being ranked 125th, having previously been runner-up at Wimbledon in 1992, 1994 and 1998

It was a Tour match at Brighton in 2000 where Ivanisevic had to concede his match against an unseeded Hyung Taik Lee because the Croatian ran out of racquets after breaking it one after the other.

The umpires consulted amongst themselves about what to do. They asked Ivanisevic’s doubles partner Ljubicic whether he had a spare one, but it was a different brand so he had no other choice than throwing in the towel. Ivanisevic lost the match not because of the way he played, but because of the way he behaved.

Fortunately, Ivanisevic  learnt the lesson and found ways to control his anger. A year later he shocked the world when he went on to become the Wimbledom champion in 2001 by defeating Pat Rafter.