Wednesday, March 24, 2004 NASDAQ-100 Open IVANISEVIC HANGS IN THERE ON A LEFT WING AND A PRAYER Goran is never borin’. Never. Sometimes the “Incendiary I” – skinny 6-4 Goran Ivanisevic -- is even better (for us quote-seekers) when he loses, as at the U.S. Open of 1994 when, seeded 2nd, he was bounced in the first round by No. 68, German Markus Zoecke. “Maybe I better play the women’s tour,” said Goran. Over the years he has become a beloved figure (and a millionaire several times over) because, wearing his emotions like a necklace, he could be volatile, but frank about misdeeds. Very human. Very simpatico. After losing the 1998 Wimbledon final to Pete Sampras in 5 sets, he said he wanted to kill himself – but, thankfully, desisted Though a notorious racket-buster – “I still enjoy it; sometimes it helps, gets anger out of your system” – he wanted to splinter one as the Nasdaq-100 Open opened on a dreary, chilly and dripping Wednesday at Crandon Park. “But I say to myself, OK, don’t break it. Save it.” He also startled himself and his many fans – “I didn’t expect to win” – by saving a match point in beating No.66 Nicolas Escude, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (9-7). Since his 2001 miracle, ranked No. 125 as the lone wild card ever to win Wimbledon, and sending up his native Croatia into a massive celebration, he has been a less than .500 performer (30-35), wracked by injuries. This was only his eighth match over the last two years. He came in again as a wild card, ranked No. 592. Popping pain-killers like a kid devouring M & Ms, Goran got through the Big W somehow with a gimpy left shoulder, but hasn’t been back. That’s his goal: one more shot at Centre Court as he nears his 33rd birthday, preceding an imminent retirement. Surgery repaired the shoulder but didn’t cure it. “I owe it to myself and the English who supported me to set foot on that grass again.” Goran is happy to be back on the Key despite historic trials in the Nasdaq. “I always find something to stop me here – I am the expert at it. In 1996 I had to quit the final [against Sampras] in the first set with a stiff neck. Once I went out with a broken finger. “Then last year what happened can only happen to me. I’m coming out of the water [the nearby Atlantic], it’s a beach a 10 kilometers beach, one shell on it probably. And,” he laughs, “I found it.” It cut his foot. He was out of the tournament. “After three weeks I still had pain. They took an MRI, found a piece of shell. Surgery. Took me 2 1⁄2 months to start to walk. More surgery, it got inflamed again, and it was hell. So I am staying away from the beach, only watching the outside from my hotel window.” What foot was it? “I don’t know. It’s same thing – left, right? It doesn’t matter.” What matters most is his new daughter, 11-months-old Amber Maria. “I have more things to think about now than tennis.” He says the shoulder still hurts, but he is serving “better than the last two years. Slower. But I liked that ace on the match point” -- 112 MPH, but well placed in the decisive tie-breaker at 6-7. No longer the most feared server in the game, Goran remains combative, hoping he can avoid sea shells, banana peels, neck-stiffening drafts, back-straining luggage and anything else that might keep him from the Wimbledon lawns he once ruled. But it will be tough getting past another lefty, the Spanish whiz Rafael Nadal, in his second round. <<<Back