2 Responses to umag90prpic_ivanisevic

1. Voo de Mar says:

   August 27, 2026 at 11:41 am

   Points won by each set: | 34-21, 31-35, 31-31 |
   Unreturned serves:
   18 % Prpic – 19 of 105
   25 % Ivanisevic – 20 of 78

   The first edition of the “Yugoslav Open” and a dream final – for the officials and the spectators – was materialised as two Croats (top seeded players) faced each other. Even though Prpic [35] is seven years older than Ivanisevic [53], they had a similar main-level experience at the time because Prpic didn’t possess skills to make a big impact on men’s tennis as a teenager as opposed to his younger compatriot, and lost more than two years of his career to heel a traumatic right knee injury (Boca Raton ’86). Once he returned to the game, he would continue playing with a semi-prosthesis for five years at very good level, but initially he needed to participate in Satellites & Challengers to rebuild his ranking which lasted a year more or less… In the 3rd set of the Umag final, 19-year-old Ivanisevic had a break point at 2:1, then he led 4:3, at 4-all (30-all) he lost the longest rally of the match (31 strokes), and made a terrible volley error afterwards. At 4:5 he created three break points, but Prpic saved them all, the last one with the help of a brilliant backhand dropshot. “I already thanked him back then, at the trophy ceremony, for ‘letting me have’ that tournament, because I knew he would go on to win plenty of titles by the end of his career. And I was right,” Prpic recalled many years after the final.

   Prpic’s route to his lone title (32nd main-level event):
   1 Eduardo Masso 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-0
   2 Diego Perez 6-2, 6-0
   Q Roberto Azar 6-4, 6-4
   S Horacio de la Pena 7-6(6), 7-6(3)
   W Goran Ivanisevic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4

   Serve & volley: Prpic 4/4, Ivanisevic 7/12

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   August 27, 2026 at 2:45 pm

   ☆ One week later, the Croats join forces and with a Serb (Slobodan Živojinović), who supports in doubles, they conquer the World Team Cup for Yugoslavia. Prpić goes undefeated through four ties, extending his winning streak to a career-best nine. Playing two weeks in a row takes its toll, and he loses in the first round of the French Open to a qualifier (Thierry Champion), who later sensationally reaches the quarterfinals… Prpić enjoyed representing Yugoslavia; at the beginning of 1991 he triumphed in the Hopman Cup & later that year he helped his country to reach the World Team Cup final again as well as the Davis Cup semifinal. The Balkan war prevented him from playing against France in that semifinal…

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