By Antonio Ortu
A nostalgic smile appears on Viktor Troicki’s face as soon as we evoke his victory in the 2010 Davis Cup Final. He won the decisive fifth rubber against Michael Llodra and Serbia was crowned Davis Cup Champion for the first and – till now – only time.
“Hopefully there are going to be a few more coming! But now as a captain. Not anymore as a player. When you have Novak (Djokovic) in the team, the chances are pretty high. Now we have (Memoir) Kecmanovic who is playing very well, and there are also (Filip) Krajinovic and (Laslo) Djere. We have a really good team and I think we can go far this year.” Troicki tells UbiTennis.
Last year Serbia lost in the semifinals to Croatia, who was then defeated by Russia in the final.
Winning a team event like Davis Cup would mean a lot for the country and their tennis movement. In fact, in 2011 all the players got a boost and played at their highest in the following season.
“Novak had an unbelievable year, winning basically everything, Janko Tipsarevic started his best season in 2011. He also reached number eight in the world. Zimonjic was number one that year in doubles and I reached my best ranking, number 12, not so bad! It gave us the confidence to play our best tennis and helped us achieve the best results.” Troicki recounts.
Thanks to this result in 2010, and above all thanks to the records established by Djokovic, who is now considered as one of the greatest tennis players in history, tennis has risen to an important role in the Serbian sportscape which had been historically centred on team sports.
“Tennis is really popular. It’s one of the most popular sports in Serbia. People love to watch it and love to play it. They’ve really followed tennis since Novak, Ana Ivanova and Jelena Jankovic, and also Zimonjic in the doubles, became number one in the world. Novak is absolutely the hero and the best athlete ever of Serbia, so people really love and enjoy tennis.”
The Serbia Open has just ended with Djokovic’s defeat to Andrey Rublev in the final. The tournament is scheduled in the ATP calendar as a 250 event. Yet the Novak tennis Centre features state-of-the-art facilities and a number of courts which equals the most prestigious and well-known clubs.
“Right now we have thirteen courts, but we are going to have some corrections. We are planning to have some indoor courts and we are going to lose some courts. But we are also going to extend the land we’ve got to make some other courts. In total we’re looking to have around 15 courts we can use all year during the winter and the summer,” Troicki outlines.
“It’s going to be one of the best centres in this region of the world. We’re trying to bring up players to raise the interest for tennis and bring more competitors. After tennis was very popular in 2010 and 2011 there was a slight decrease, so we are trying to get as many players as we can. We have really good players here in the centre who are among the best of their age in Serbia and across Europe. We’re really looking to attract as many good players as possible to have a base here and to train them.”
Currently there are about 1500 official players in Serbia, but with the Novak Tennis Centre this number is surely destined to grow over the coming years.
