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By Andy Luse
© Natasha Peterson/Corleve

(August 7, 2010) Americans departed the DC draw on Thursday, but the latest chapter of the Croatia vs. Serbia rivalry generated some late-night buzz at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington DC Friday night.

Last month, Novak Djokovic, Jannko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic led the Serbian Davis Cup squad to a 4-1 triumph over Marin Cilic and Ivan Ljubicic-led Croatian team in Split in what was the first ever Davis Cup clash between the two former Yugoslavian nations.

Fourth-seeded Cilic gained a measure of revenge for that setback in defeating Tipsarevic in a tight, 7-6(4), 6-4 victory that sent Cilic into Saturday's semifinals against David Nalbandian.

Playing his first ATP event since Monte Carlo in April, the Argentine wild card broke serve three times in the final set to rally into his first semifinal since February of 2009 with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 over Gilles Simon.

Whenever there is a showdown between a Serb and a Croat player it is hard to avoid playing up the drama of two nations that fought a bitter war only 15 years ago and are still rivals today, at least in the sporting arena.  Despicable fan behavior can crop up whenever the two sides play as was the case at the Australian Open in recent years when police intervened to bounce brawling Serb and Croat fans from the Melbourne major.

During last month's Davis Cup meeting, Croatian fans were whistling during the Serbian national anthem and shouting inflammatory slogans. Despite the bitter rivalry between the nations some of the players are friends and many have appealed to their fans to take a more conciliatory tone. 

On neutral territory in DC, the Cilic-Tipsarevic match delivered both intensity and brilliantly beautiful tennis.  Coming into the match, Cilic was 4-0 lifetime against Tipsarevic but Tipsarevic was fresh off a big win taking down the red-hot Sam Querrey.  The conditions were perfect and the players delivered one of the more clean, high-quality sets of the tournament in the first set which Cilic won. 

The 5’11” Tipsarevic served well and relied on his guile and speed to win points while the 6’6” thoroughbred Cilic won points by dominating with his ferocious forehand often directed at the Tipsarevic two-handed backhand.  Both players held with relative ease (there was only break point on Cilic’s serve). It was in the tie break that Cilic’s superior natural ability came into play.  Tipsarevic’s balls sat up just a little bit and Cilic took full advantage, sling-shotting forehands all over the court. 

The second set began just as the first with both players holding easily.  At 3-3, however, Cilic broke Tipsarevic’s serve, consolidated, and then earned triple-match points.  Tipsarevic looked resigned to defeat when suddenly the small crowd, which had been flat up until that point, (no Americans left to cheer for) got behind Tipsarevic and tried to rally him back.   Amazingly Tipsarevic played three gutsy points and fought back to hold and make it 5-4 Cilic. 

Cilic, who negated both break points he faced in the match, put the hammer down in the final game, slamming two aces to close the one hour, 50-minute match.  

One had the feeling that Tipsarevic needed some crowd energy to win this match.  He kept trying to bounce around and even get mad in order to pump himself up but the crowd just didn’t cooperate until the final two games.