There are various types of players competing at the upper echelons of the professional tennis world. You have your flashy ballstrikers who have all the shots but lack the consistency and your grinding baseliners who lack the killer shot but read the game well. I'd like to add another category to the above. It will simply be called "a fighter". Enter Ivan Dodig. The 26 year old Croatian has done it the hard way, toiling away on the futures and challenger circuit for the first 7 years of his career before finally breaking into the top 100 last year.
Told by numerous people around him growing up and during his early days as a pro, that he didn't have the talent or defining shot to make it on the ATP tour, Dodig has trained the house down to get to where he is today. His coach Martin Stepanek and trainer Milos Jelisavcic have coached him well and have been there with him through thick and thin and have helped transform him into a legitimate top 50 player. Like his idol and fellow Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, Dodig possesses a huge serve and a powerful forehand. His style is based around a solid baseline game, in which he fights for every point and attempts to limit the unforced errors and frustrate his opponent into error. It goes to show that if you put in hard work and training off the match court, it can pay dividends in the end.
After grinding it out on the futures and challenger circuit for the first 6 years of his career, Dodig had his breakthrough year last year, entering the top 100 for the first time on the back of some strong performances in Challengers and managing to qualify for 3 slams, reaching the 2nd round on all occasions. His biggest scalp occurred at the beginning of the season, where coming through the qualifying, he managed to outmuscle former world number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the blistering Melbourne heat. It was all the more special as the Croatian managed to fight back from 2 sets down to claim the victory in 5. Sheer determination and will to win got him through that one and paved the way for a successful year to come. He also reached his maiden ATP quarter final in Stockholm, going down to Ivan Ljubicic on the indoor hardcourts.
Dodig has made even bigger strides so far in 2011. He started off the year in Melbourne with yet another 5 set opening win, this time against giant serving countryman Ivo Karlovic. The match finished around midnight and was the only match playing on the outside courts and a solid crowd was present to witness Ivan come from behind again to win in 5. He was also the only man to take a set off eventual champion Novak Djokovic, going down in the second round 5-7 7-6(8) 0-6 2-6. Dodig gave absolutely 300% in that 2nd set and had nothing left in the tank for the remaining sets and after it looked like he wouldn't be able to walk off the court, he was that physically spent.
Success was to continue for Dodig the following month in his home nation of Croatia. Ivan won his first ATP title, defeating 5 players ranked higher than him at the time to emerge victorious on the indoor hardcourts of Zagreb. It proved the culmination of a lifetime of hard work and training and you could see during the trophy ceremony how much it truly meant to him. He had finally made it on the tour and proved all the doubters wrong. Dodig's strong start to the season would continue onto the European clay, reaching the semi finals of the Barcelona Open, eventually succumbing to eventual champion and clay court god Rafeal Nadal in straight sets.Which brings us to the present and the grass. Dodig is through to his second ATP world tour final in s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands where he will face Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the final. Helped by the often depleted fields in the events the week before a grand slam, Ivan has made the most of the opportunity in making the final, including a great 7-6 (1) 6-1 victory over former Wimbledon semi finalist Marcos Baghdatis.
Nice job, man! :-)
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