Back in 2002, Roger Federer was starting to make a name for himself, and the tennis world awaited his breakthrough as a Grand Slam winner. Arriving as the seventh seed at Wimbledon, he was poised to win his first major title. Instead, a young Croatian player stunned him in the first round. It was Mario Ancic, who would later also beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, but whose career was cut short due to injuries.
Ancic, born in 1984 in Split, Croatia, followed in the footsteps of Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic’s future coach. He practiced with the Grand Slam winner in 1994, at the age of 10, and was a ballboy when Ivanisevic played in the Croatia-Australia Davis Cup tie.
As he started rising in the tennis world, he was called “Baby Goran.” If his debut in a major, against Federer, was any indication that he was going to be one of the top players, he delivered in the following years, helping Croatia win the Davis Cup and the Olympic bronze medal.
His win over Federer
In 2006, ESPN described Ancic as one of the men with “the purest game on grass” in the circuit. The 6-foot-5 player liked to play with the classic serve-and-volley, one of his best shots, and was a strong attacker.
Ancic was only 18 years old when he beat Federer in Wimbledon (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
“When I was a kid, I saw Goran Ivanisevic play numerous finals and then, in the end, he won. So, Wimbledon, I thought, ‘Okay, this is the tournament where I have the most chances to win.’ Then I pivoted towards playing really well on grass. Generally, I felt if I could win a Slam, this could probably be it,” he told Tennis.com in 2021.
see also
Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt on the GOAT debate: What has he said about Federer, Djokovic and Nadal
In his major debut at Wimbledon in 2002, he came out of nowhere and defeated Federer in four sets: 6-3, 7-6(2), 6-3. Nobody would have known at the time that he would become the last man to beat Federer on grass until Rafael Nadal defeated the Swiss at the epic 2008 Wimbledon final.
“What a shocker that was. I was just really disappointed when I lost to him,” Federer told the press in 2006. “I just thought, ‘I’ll play a little bit of serve and volley.’ I expected him to stay back. And it was the opposite. I couldn’t serve and volley because I thought the conditions were slow. He served and volleyed on first and second serves. I got completely surprised,” he said.
Super Mario and his success
With the upset, Ancic earned the nickname “Super Mario.” In fact, Ancic and Federer met again at Centre Court at Wimbledon two more times after that, with the Swiss winning both. In 2006, Ancic had defeated 19-year-old Novak Djokovic in a hard-fought five-set match in the Round of 16 to prevent Djokovic and Federer’s first Slam encounter.
By that time, Ancic was already a Davis Cup champion with Croatia, winning the title in 2005, as well as an Olympic medalist, after winning bronze with Ivan Ljubicic (future Federer’s coach) in Athens 2004. That same year, he recorded his only win against a young Nadal, which came in Milan. In 2006, he achieved his highest ranking of World No. 7. However, he would soon start suffering from injuries.
Ancic and Djokovic in 2006 (Phil Cole/Getty Images)
Ancic’s health problems
Ancic’s rise was halted when he began suffering from the consequences of infectious mononucleosis between 2007 and 2008, which included glandular fever and a stomach illness. He also suffered a right shoulder injury. “I was in bed for weeks, until at least the early summer,” he told the press in 2009 (via Tennis.com). “I was concerned that my career could be over.”
“When I tried to walk, I could only manage for 20 minutes. I had to start everything from the beginning,” he recalled. “I’d tried to run and really couldn’t; it was a long, long process back. I had to start from zero after lying in bed with a fever,” he said.
Ancic suffered from several injuries (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
From being World No. 9, he dropped to No. 136, his lowest ranking in more than five years. However, in 2008, he climbed to World No. 43. Not everything was negative, though. As he couldn’t compete, he took the time to complete his studies at the University of Split law school.
“It just helped me stay mentally strong,” Ancic said of his law degree, per the Associated Press. “It would have been much tougher if I didn’t have it, so I would sit the whole day at home and hit my head through the wall all day, you know, with nothing to do. Watch tennis, and you get even more crazy.” He added, “This was really something that, ‘OK, now I don’t have tennis, but I have something else equally, maybe as important in my life.’”
see also
He stunned Federer at the French Open, won a major doubles title, but retired at only 29
His retirement and life after tennis
It turned out that it would be a valuable asset, as he was forced to leave tennis in 2011 at only 26 years old due to his recurring injuries. He then attended Harvard Law and earned a J.D. degree at Columbia University.
“I spent a couple of years rehabbing and trying to come back, but at the end of the day, I had to be real with myself and say, ‘It’s not possible to be at that level. And you got to make a tough decision,’” he told Tennis.com in 2021.
Ancic and Andre Agassi watching Novak Djokovic play in 2017 (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
“I was very blessed to have good people around me, always showing me the value of education,” he said. After more than a decade without tennis, Ancic now works for a private equity firm in New York City but remains connected to tennis through various endeavors, such as FanSlam, tennis’s own fantasy game.
While he couldn’t have the career he dreamed of, Ancic will always have a place in history. “One of the things I look back on is that I was able to beat each one once, and Andy (Murray). But just being able to say that you participated in probably the strongest era of ATP tennis is something I am proud of,” he said of his time in tennis.
