Then, he elaborated on the two accidents which shadowed his season:
Oddly enough, the two men played against each other in the final of St. Petersburg, late in the season; Mario beat his friend with an aggressive display of serve-and-volley tennis. Then, Mario turned serious when talking about his own accident; he was done putting up with more than his fair share of criticism, due to misleading press reports:
Message sent, Mario. For a moment, we recalled his scintillating win, as an unknown qualifier, over Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2002:
This led to a conversation about surface tactics. Mario is a serve-and-volleyer on fast-court surfaces, so I asked him why he plays a two-handed backhand. After all, great serve-and-volleyers, including Edberg and Sampras, abandoned the two-hander in their youth.
Then we talked a bit about Goran Ivanisevic, Croatian tennis legend, 2001 Wimbledon champion, and notable, loveable headcase. Interestingly, Mario has the exact same basso profundo voice and accent as Goran. They live on the same street in Split and Goran’s influence on Mario’s career has been huge:
As we were talking, many experienced journalists came by to congratulate Ancic on his season; then, several Chinese reporters swooped in and began asking for autographs and taking pictures. So, I thought I would help spare Mario that kind of harassment by (prematurely) ending his interview on a good note. He left, but not before saying this to all of TennisWorld:
By now, Mario has already left Shanghai, heading off for a well-deserved vacation before preparing for 2007. Hopefully, at some point, we can manage to get him to check on his fans over here.
So, there you have it. Thanks for your time, Mario, and I hope the TW Tribe welcomes you with their great comments, suggestions, or even questions they’d like to ask you.
He’s all yours, tribe. [Ed. Note: Be Gentle!]
Miguel Seabra, in Shanghai