(This story was published in 2001).
We cheered loudly for Ivanisevic as he made his improbable journey from wild-card entrant to 2001 Wimbledon champ. We had tears in our eyes watching him embrace his father in the stands after his magnificent five-set win over Patrick Rafter in the men’s final.
Tears turned to jeers after Ivanisevic made some insulting homophobic remarks in his post-match press conference. Here is part of the transcript from the press session:
Q. When you were broken at 4-2 in the fourth set, controversial point there, can you go over that with us, what you thought should have happened?
IVANISEVIC: First of all, that game, I was 30-Love up. I play some stupid shots. I make myself in trouble. Then first foot fault. Hit great serve. He missed it. First foot fault all tournament. That ugly, ugly lady, she was really ugly, very serious, you know. I was like kind of scared.
“Then I hit another second serve, huge. And that ball was on the line, was not even close. And that guy, he looks like a faggot little bit, you know. This hair all over him. He call it. I couldn’t believe he did it.
“Just, you know, in two seconds, I won point twice and I’m down 4-2. Then I got little crazy, you know.”
