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Serbia mesmerized by tennis stars

The whole of Serbia is awaiting the French Open semi-finals, certain that one of their own will reach the final and possibly the No. 1 spot in women’s tennis, and hoping that their prince will dethrone the Spanish king.

Three Serbs, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic on the women’s side, and Novak Djokovic in the men’s draw, have caused a media frenzy at home which has over the past few years become routine at the time of a Grand Slam or other large tennis tournament.

Reflecting the interest, Serbian national TV RTS was simultaneously airing Djokovic’s quarter-final match against Latvian Ernests Gulbis on its first channel and Ivanovic’s duel with Swiss Patty Schnyder on the second channel on Tuesday.

Following the retirement of Belgian Justine Hennin and the stumble by Russian Maria Sharapova earlier in the tournament, the winner of today’s Ivanovic-Jankovic semi-final will, apart from reaching the final, likely also take the No. 1 position in the WTA rankings.

Either of the Serbs will take the top spot if Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova fails to win the French title. Ivanovic currently holds the No. 2 WTA spot, Jankovic is third and Kuznetsova fourth.

“Jelena and Ana fight for throne,” “Ana and Jelena conquering the world,” “Serbs for the throne” and “Serbs thunder at Roland Garros” were some of the headlines in the Belgrade newspapers.

“The Serbian semi-final is a logical consequence of what we saw in the ladies bracket in Paris over the past 10 days,” the daily Blic said in a comment, noting that Ivanovic enters the “high-stake” match leading her rival 6-1 since 2005.

“One of them will win a final before the final and so take a look at a place in history by becoming the first-ever Serb on top of the women’s rankings,” it said.

“It may be the most important match in my career,” Jankovic told Vecernje Novosti. “In any case, one of us goes to the final, which is a really good result for Serbian tennis.”

“We have a guaranteed spot for Serbia in the finals,” Ivanovic said. “Of course, it would have been even better if we could have played for the title.”

In the men’s draw, “the world will see another magnificent duel of throne contenders” when Djokovic faces the world’s best player on the surface and three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain tomorrow.

“Prince Nole challenges King Nadal,” “Now, Nadal,” “Djokovic reaches Nadal” and “another assault on the number 2 spot,” were the typical headlines around the Australian Open champion Djokovic.

Newspapers also praised Serbia’s doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic, who qualified for the men’s semi-finals with Canadian Daniel Nestor and the mixed doubles quarter-final with Slovenian Katerina Srebotnik.
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