Croatian born former tennis professional Goran Ivanišević is now a coach who is having as much success as he did during his fine playing days. Goran holds the accolades of being the only ever mens singles player to have won the major title, Wimbledon, having been entered as a wildcard. That was in 2001 and came years after his previous best performances where he had been runner up in 1992, 1994 and 1998. He was ranked, incredibly, 125th when he entered Wimbledon in 2001 and his win saw him shoot all the way up to 16th. In 1994 he was the second best ranked player in the world behind the mighty Pete Sampras (who also beat him in his second Wimbledon final in 1994). A year later he won the Grand Slam Cup.
Goran was part of the winning side in the 2005 Davis Cup and also the 2006 Hopman Cup. He has overseen four major title wins as coach and won nine titles as a singles mens player. Always getting through to the latter rounds of the French, US, and Australian open, he was a fine server and great competitor. Nowadays Goran coaches a great Croat in the form of top ten ranked Marin ?ilic. Back in 2001, Goran actually played football for Croatian team Hajduk Split. Now still a popular figure amongst the world’s sports fans, Goran is a role model and great professional who can act as brand ambassador, host tennis days, coach and many other things besides.
