Super Mario

Sunday Telegraph, June 2003

A packed centre court audience rose as one to acclaim their tall, dark-haired Croatian hero as he roared to the Gods in victory, fists clenched, eyes wild. Goran Ivanisevic was nowhere to be seen. This was the moment when Mario Ancic, an 18-year-old from Split, announced his arrival last year, beating seventh seed Roger Federer - John McEnroe's pick for the title - in the Wimbledon first round. All those missing the presence of Ivanisevic suddenly didn't feel quite so bad.

Ivanisevic, unable to fulfill his dream of opening Wimbledon as the defending champion, was back in Split, nursing his injured shoulder, and proudly watching every minute on television.

"I was very happy for him," he said.

"He qualified, he came to the centre court and he beat Roger Federer. He's good and he's going to be even better."

Born and raised only a decent forehand from where Ivanisevic grew up on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, Ancic bears more than a passing resemblance to his famous countryman.

Against Federer, he hit one unreturnable serve after another, bellowed his excitement, and entertained the media afterwards in an eerily Goran-esque baritone voice.

Could one of the three alter egos Ivanisevic says live inside his head have slipped across the Adriatic and into this young boy? To put everyone's mind at rest, Ancic formally introduced himself.

"Ever since I grew up, people have called me "second Goran". There are lots of similarities, I'm not trying to get away from that, but I'm Mario, I think everyone will know me like that. Goran was always there for me, he is my friend, but the only second Goran is going to be when he has a son."

Ancic went all the way through the qualifying competition prior to downing Federer, but not before the 2001 Wimbledon champion had tried to use his clout to get Ancic a short-cut into the main draw.

"I called Mr Phillips (Tim Phillips - the Wimbledon chaiman) before Wimbledon started to see if he would give Mario a wild card" said Ivanisevic. "He asked me how good he is. I told him "He's good, and he's going to be very good!" but he wouldn't give him one."

Ancic proved he didn't need any favours, but after donning the sports pages of every newspaper in the world the day after his win over Federer, the pressure began to tell. In the second round he lost to little known Czech Jan Vacek.

"It was tough," said Ivanisevic. "Every newspaper was calling him the new Goran, but he's Mario Ancic and he's going to be a great player himself."

Unlike Goran, Ancic is a right-hander, and also very much his own person off the court.

His father, Stipe, owns a supermarket chain, and regularly travels with his son to give him a sense of family life.His mother, Nilda, constantly kept her son up-to-date with school by faxing his homework to him wherever he was in the world.

Not perhaps what one would expect from someone who is regularly put in the same sentence as the man known as "Crazy Goran". As it happens, Ancic is one of the most grounded, educated tennis players on the tour. He reads for leisure as well as schoolwork, and looks incredulous when asked why.

"I like reading" he says."I do anything I can to knowledge myself, to learn. I'm still a young guy and I'm not afraid to learn anything. For me it's normal to take something and read it."

Much of his childhood and adolescence was set against the backdrop of the Balkans War. He was just 10 when the fighting began, but wasn't directly affected. "here was no bombing in Split, but it's always tough when you see your people fighting and only a couple of hundred kilometres from you is bombing and terrible things going on. But we tried to be as normal as we could.”

Ivanisevic meanwhile, became a national icon, playing matches with the Croatian flag as a headband, and publically dedicating victories to his countrymen.

Those images have stayed with Ancic, who clearly still idolises his friend. His brother, Ivica was a Davis Cup player for Croatia, so Mario was around the tennis scene from the age of seven. He vividly remembers the day he hit with Ivanisevic for the first time when he was ten and still has a photograph to prove it.

Bob Brett, then the coach of Ivanisevic, knew talent when he saw it, and helped nurture the youngster through his adolescence.

Ancic reached the Wimbledon junior final in 2000 and played doubles with Goran at the Sydney Olympics.

When Ivanisevic finally won the Wimbledon final at the fourth time of asking a year later, Ancic was on the victory boat that sailed into Split Harbour. It was greeted by 150,000 deliriously happy people, some of whom, it was said, drove their cars into the sea to celebrate.

"It was a madhouse," remembers Ancic. "We people in Split are a little bit different - when Goran is on top everyone is happy but when he is down everyone's like "ah, he's too old to do anything." After all the losses in the other finals, to come back and win when he was 30, I think no one could have written that book better."

With Ivanisevic just about ready to hang up his racquet, it is Ancic the people of Split are looking to now.

He has the game, he has the passion, is he just a little bit crazy too? Ivanisevic would talk to his racquets before breaking them by the dozen.

"I'm not sensitive like him," says Ancic, grinning. "I don't talk to them. I just break them."

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