Mario Ancic

by Henry Wancke

Unseeded Mario Ancic, or 'Little Goran' as he has been dubbed by the British press, nearly pulled off a major upset when he took a set off Andy Roddick today – easily matching him in the service department and reading his opponent's thunderballs with considerable success.

Ancic is indeed cast from a similar mould to the popular Goran Ivanisevic, the Croat who won Wimbledon as an unseeded wild card in 2001. Ancic blasts the ball like his illustrious compatriot, both off the ground and on the serve.

And this week he beat Tim Henman, much like Goran did in 2001.

But the similarities don't end there. The 20 year-old comes across at press conferences in much the same way, in an offhand manner and with a similar deep voice. (It's almost a growl.) As he develops, we can expect his humorous side to show more, as it did in the case of Ivanisevic.

And he is growing to like grass courts very much, which isn't surprising given the results he has achieved on the surface since he famously knocked Roger Federer out of the first round of The Championships in 2002.

"Fast courts are good for me," Ancic says. "I think I've improved a lot. [In the past] I was hardly serving and volleying but this year I have been more aggressive. Today was down to just a few points and now I am going to get down to small details and I'll try and improve there." He adds, confidently: "These kind of matches, I will win in the end ….. maybe not next year, but over the years."

In fact, Ancic quite rightly believes he has come along in leaps and bounds just this summer. "I've already improved from when I played Queen's with Roddick, because now I am rallying much better from the back. I knew what to expect this time – I was returning better than at Queen's, volleying, serving and volleying better also. It's great to see that I have improved in the last three, four weeks. It's great that I, you know, manage."

Ancic agrees that on this occasion, the overnight rain delay helped him a lot. He recalls: "I broke him straight away – broke him a second time – to win the set. I was up 0-40 in the next game – that was good."

Ancic was philosophical about his lost opportunities, including missed break point chances and untimely unforced errors. "I did have break points and didn't use them, which he did. I was struggling a little bit with my serve in the fourth set, but I was fighting good with my volley and everything."

He may have lost the match, but Ancic knows that he won invaluable experience at this year's Championships. "I was enjoying playing in these kind of matches. The crowd was really spectacular today," he says. "It was a pretty big match," he continues, "and in those kind of matches it comes down to three or four balls. I really have to congratulate him; I think he played better." He will watch tomorrow's final to, as he puts it, "Just learn from watching the match."