Mario Ancic Biography
22-year-old Croatian born tennis sensation, Mario Ancic, certainly earned his current nickname, “Super Mario” as a teenager making his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon in 2002, when he defeated ninth-seeded Roger Federer, becoming the first teenager since BjÃ?¶rn Borg to win his Wimbledon debut on Centre Court – and the last player to defeat Federer at the All England Club.
Ancic was born in Split, and started playing tennis at the age of seven. He became one of the top junior tennis players in the world and in 1999, he represented Croatia in the NEC World Youth Cup, helping them to the runners-up position.
In 2000, Ancic reached the final at Wimbledon at the age of 16, where he lost to Nicolas Mahut of France in three sets. He was also a finalist at the Australian Open and semifinalist at the U.S. Open, losing to Andy Roddick on both occasions. The same year he won his first futures tournament in Zagreb.
2001 saw Ancic reach the finals at the China and Canada futures events and in 2002, Ancic compiled a record of 30-16 in Challenger play.
In 2003 Ancic made his Australian Open debut, reaching the fourth round before losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. The following week he captured the Hamburg Challenger, defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain. At the Australian Open in 2004 Ancic reached the third round before falling to Mark Philippoussis of Australia.
In June and July of ’04, he posted his best ever results on grass with a third round showing at Queens, losing to Andy Roddick once again. He defeated local favorite Tim Henman en route to the semifinal at Wimbledon where he lost to Roddick in four sets.
In 2005, Ancic improved his year end ATP ranking for the sixth consecutive year, highlighted by his first career ATP title. At the Australian Open, Ancic lost in the third round to eventual champion Marat Safin in four sets. Ancic did however end 2005 on a high as he played the deciding rubber in the Davis Cup final in Bratislava, defeating Michal Mertinak of Slovakia to give Croatia its first ever Davis Cup victory making them the first unseeded nation to win the coveted trophy.
Ancic started 2006 on a strong note in his second tournament of the year at Auckland, where he defeated top seed Fernando Gonz�¡lez of Chile on his way to the final. However, he could not repeat his form in the final, going down in straight sets to his good friend Jarkko Nieminen.
At the Australian Open, Mario reached the third round, before falling in straight sets to 10th seed David Ferrer of Spain. At the 2006 French Open he reached the quarterfinals in which he lost to Roger Federer. However, Ancic had a shoving incident with Chile’s Paul Capdeville at the end of his second round match and the players exchanged words, then scuffled a bit, and were soon separated by the chair umpire. Ancic and Capdeville were each fined $3,000 for the incident. Wimbledon brought yet more heartbreak for Ancic as he was was beaten yet again by Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.
However, Mario Ancic remains a legitimate threat to break through and capture his first Grand Slam at some point in the near future. Hopefully for him, it will be sooner rather than later. Then again – with Federer in his prime right now – who knows how long the wait could take.
