Word: serbia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...consecutively defeated three of the world's best players: Andy Roddick of the U.S., Rafael Nadal of Spain and, most astonishingly, Roger Federer of Switzerland. But as the announcer at the Roger's Cup declared Novak Djokovic the champion, he introduced the young man as a native of Croatia, Serbia's less than friendly neighbor. That's like saying a Pakistani is an Indian or an Irishman an Englishman. Serbs all over the world bristled...
...young Serbs represent a surprising flowering of talent for a tiny country of 10 million. In comparison, the U.S., with 30 times the population, also has three players in the top ten. Serbia, moreover, has no national tennis center and few indoor courts. Ivanovic fell in love with the game at age 5 after watching Serbian-American Monica Seles play on TV, but she and Jankovic both had to practice in an abandoned indoor swimming pool in downtown Belgrade for lack of other facilities. Both were also kids when U.S. planes bombed their hometown in the campaign to drive Serbian...
Ivanovic and Jankovic eventually left Serbia to train elsewhere as well: Ivanovic to Switzerland and Jankovic to Florida. But they are still national heroes, greeted by tens of thousands on the streets of Belgrade after their successful run in the French Open earlier this summer. Their faces are featured on the biggest advertising billboards in the Serbian capital pitching everything from jewelry to shoes...
...most talkative of the new crop. "Nobody in our country invested one dollar into any one of our players," he said. His tongue-in-cheek explanation for why so many Serbs are suddenly playing at the top of the circuit? "Depleted uranium," a reference to munitions dropped on Serbia and blamed since then for all manner of ailments. Radmilo Armenulic, a long-time coach of the Yugoslav tennis team (until 1990) told TIME that the players' performance has been "amazing," although he admits that it has yet to have a major effect on the promotion of tennis in Serbia...
Many Serbs hope that their young players' popularity will rub off on Serbia itself. During and after the NATO bombing that ended the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, Serbs became stock villains in Western media: the terrorists plotting mayhem in the first year of the HBO series 24 were Serbs. Now, opines "serbiangirl" in a blog, Ana, Novak and Jelena can show "that the Serbian people are not just terorists [sic] and criminals, we are nice, talented and good people!!!" Just don't call them Croats. With reporting by Dejan Anastasijevic/Belgrade