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At the Heart of Serbia’s Tennis Success Story

Susana Vera/Reuters

MADRID — Before there was Novak Djokovic, there was Janko Tipsarevic.

Three years older than Djokovic, Tipsarevic was the tennis prodigy with the strong personality and powerful groundstrokes who first emerged from the ashes and acrimony in Serbia as a great prospect for the men’s game.

He grew up practicing in Belgrade with Ana Ivanovic, a future star in the women’s game, and others on a cramped tennis court that had been laid out on the floor of a drained swimming pool.

With Yugoslavia in the midst of a violent breakup, there were no funds to build a more conventional indoor facility.