| | Associated Press
NEW YORK -- For years, Goran Ivanisevic has been an
entertainer at the U.S. Open, sometimes stomping around when he
missed shots, talking to his racket and then slamming it down when
he didn't like the answer.
He called it "making some show for the people," and the people
loved it. Now, though, the show seems to have reached a sad end.
|  | | Goran Ivanisevic used to be one of the biggest servers in the game, but the Croatian has a torn rotator cuff and was distraught with his opening-round loss Tuesday. |
On Tuesday, Ivanisevic won his first set against Dominik Hrbaty,
Then, suddenly, the air went out of his game. In no time, he was a
first-round casualty, losing 6-3, 0-6, 1-6, 0-6.
He won just one game in the final three sets and hardly seemed
upset with the outcome. He never threw his racket. He rarely does
anymore. "Not lately, I didn't break too many," he said.
He offered a review of his match with Hrbaty.
"No idea how to play," he said. "No idea what to do. I cannot
put first serve in the court. Just walking there like my first year
on the tour, lost boy, wild card."
The zest was gone from his game. Ivanisevic -- who will need surgery soon to repair a torn rotator cuff -- seemed to want to be
someplace else, anywhere but the hard courts of the National Tennis
Center, where he was a semifinalist in 1996 but otherwise never
made it past the fourth round.
"Museum match," he called it. "When you go to a museum,
that's how I played. I don't know. It's just happening that I don't
have fun anymore to play. I won the first set, I don't know how to
be honest. I just didn't do anything.
"I cannot motivate myself."
He rattled off the names of the players who were on the Tour
when he arrived -- Lendl, McEnroe, Wilander, Edberg -- all Grand Slam
winners, all gone now. Ivanisevic, perhaps the best played never to
win a Slam, thought about the passage of time and rivals.
"Now the young guys are coming," he said. "No more respect.
They play all the same. You know, they so strong. The tennis is
becoming stronger. I have to work twice than I was working before.
Is no more fun for me."
Ivanisevic looked tired. His eyes were empty. The anger, so much
a part of his tennis history, was gone. All he could think about
was the ache in his shoulder and in his game.
There is a tear in his rotator cuff, the same injury that cost
Patrick Rafter eight months after surgery. That is an option facing
Ivanisevic. "I'm going to do a lot of thinking," he said. "Then
I'm going to decide what to do.
"If I'm going to play at all this year, any match, I have to
decide. It's tough to say, `Yes,' it's tough to say, `No.' It's
stupid for me to say after the match, `I'm not going to play,' then
tomorrow say, `I'm going to play.' "
Ivanisevic said he feels no motivation for the game. He's not
having any fun. The prospect of playing for Croatia at the Sydney
Olympics, perhaps carrying the flag the way he did in 1992, brought
a shrug.
"To go there and lose first round, to fly 18 hours is not great
fun, just to have fourth Olympics and be there. I'll have to see.
"When you fly every week, now I fly to Sydney, then somebody
beats me 2-2, I say, `Why did I come to Sydney? Why didn't I go
home?' "
Then, in an instant, his spirit turned upbeat.
"Go there with a lot of Croatians in Sydney, maybe that can
motivate me. Maybe God say, `OK, this is your last chance here. You
going to win a medal. You going to play good. You going to be
happy.' Who knows? Maybe."
Somehow, the words sounded hollow.
He seemed drained, the strength sapped out of him, perhaps from
too many games, too many sets, too many matches. This was the
seventh tournament this year where he has not made it past the
first round.
"I didn't give up," he said of the match against Hrbaty. "I
just ... I don't know. Just maybe is not anymore that I play
tennis. I don't have fun anymore. No fun to play. No fun to be
here."
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