Another hot-head from Split-ville

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Shivani Naik: Oct 25 2012, 03:15 IST

Mate Pavic comes from Goran Ivanisevic-land and has mini (split two-ways) glory at the Wimbledon to his name having won the junior doubles. Like the famous Croat, Pavic too is a left-hander and chuckles that he's working on on-court temper-issues. Playing against Vishnu Vardhan on Wednesday before the Indian conceded the Round 2 match, the Croat hot-head threw the racket around a few times, worked up some nice fury, duelled verbally with the chair umpire and finally said a dramatic 'Sorry' to no one in particular before rushing for a toilet break.

"It's not easy," he later tried to explain. On his third visit to India having played a few junior meets before, he continues to find the weather a monstrous challenge after training mostly in Austria, and insists that he erred in engaging in the theatrics which also ruined his concentration. "Mistakes do happen," he said philosophically, adding "I used to lose my head a lot before but now it's less." Relatively less, he didn't mention.

In his first year in the seniors and having played 2 ATPs, Pavic has only just started unlerashing his big serve amongst the big boys - another similarity to the famous Croat. "Yes, Goran and Mario (Ancic, also from Split) were both inspirations. But I also like Fernando Verdasco," he said, donning a print similar to a Verdasco tee-shirt from his Slam semi days.

Results

Singles (pre-quarter-finals): James Marsalek (GBR) bt 3-N Sriram Balaji (IND) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; 8-Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) 6-1,

... contd.

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