Ivanisevic is inspiration of bronze-winning Croat pair

Ivan Ljubicic always carries a picture of his hero, Goran Ivanisevic with the Wimbledon Trophy. The reason he does that is because "it shows that if you want something so badly then it will come."

Ivan Ljubicic, the Croatian who partnered Mario Ancic, switched his mobile phone on within minutes of beating Indians Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes to win the men's doubles tennis bronze on Saturday.

HT Image

The 25-year-old was obviously expecting a call, but instead he got a text message. And it was from his friend and hero, Goran Ivanisevic.

At the press conference a little later, Ljubicic revealed that Ivanisevic's message said that he had lost a 100 years of his life watching this match.

And then Ljubicic, added, "Of course he's happy for us. At least, we did something like what he did (get a bronze in doubles). At least little bit."

For Mario Ancic, too, Ivanisevic is the inspiration, as he is for every other tennis star from the small European nation.

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Ivanisevic, with partner Goran Prpic, took the bronze medal and the pair they beat in the quarter-final was Paes and Ramesh Krishnan.

That year Ivanisevic also reached the semi-finals of singles and assured himself of another bronze. The 1992 Olympics were the last when both semi-finalists were given the bronze.

Ljubicic, who is a great fan of Ivanisevic, always carries a picture of his hero. The picture is that of Goran with the Wimbledon Trophy.

The reason he does that is because "it shows that if you want something so much, so badly, that it will come."

Paes, on the other hand, must be wondering, why is it that he is always getting thwarted in doubles.

In four attempts, he has twice lost to Croats -- in 1992 and 2004 -- and twice to Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge -- in 1996 and 2000.

In 1992, Paes partnered Krishnan and since 1996 has played with Bhupathi.

Incidentally, both Ljubicic and Ancic are also fine singles players besides often playing together at some ATP Tour events.

This year, they lost to Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi in the third round at the French Open.

Last year, Ljubicic along with Ancic had reached the quarters of the US Open before losing to Bryan twins, Bob and Mike.

In singles, both the Croats are top 100 players with Ljubicic ranked 20th and Ancic 71st.

For Croatia, it was their third Olympic tennis medal and all of them have been bronze.

In 1992, Ivanisevic won one bronze each in singles doubles -- with Goran Prpic -- and now it is Ancic and Ljubicic.