On 6 February 2011, Ivan Dodig hit an ace to defeat Michael Berrer and claim his first ATP Tour singles title in front of his home fans in Zagreb. Or so the Croatian thought.
Dodig threw his racquet into the crowd and walked up to the net thinking the match was over. Chair umpire Cedric Mourier, now an ATP Supervisor, told the righty it had been a let.
“I was like, ‘No way’. I could not believe it,” Dodig told ATPTour.com. “It was a hectic situation because I threw the racquet and I needed to ask the guy to please give me back the racquet. I lost the next point, and it was Deuce. Somehow, I managed to finish the match. I was lucky. I always was thinking about it. Imagine that I lost that match, it would have been a disaster.”
Instead, Dodig closed out a 6-3, 6-4 victory for his lone tour-level singles trophy and in the 15 years since has crafted a memorable career in singles and doubles. The proud 40-year-old, who reached No. 29 in the PIF ATP Rankings, No. 2 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings and won 24 tour-level doubles titles, has retired.
“In the beginning of the year, I was considering my options. And then through the year, after a couple of months, I already decided and the people close to me knew it would be my last year,” Dodig said. “But I didn’t put so much attention into that, and now at the end, in the past couple of months, I decided and finally started to share the good friends that this would be my last year.”
Having accomplished a lot in his career in both singles and doubles, Dodig simply felt that it was a good time to hang up his racquet.
“Usually players break Top 100 at the age 20, 21. I broke Top 100 [when I was] almost 24. But after that, I stayed there for a long time, for 15, 16 years,” Dodig said. “I achieved a lot of things, and played so much tennis in singles and doubles. So it’s a quite long career for me, and I’m really happy about it and really had a good time all these years.”
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Dodig is from Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the same small town as former World No. 3 Marin Cilic. Dodig is nearly four years older than Cilic, but they grew up together and are best friends.
Their town is known more for religious pilgrimages than athletics. When Dodig and Cilic were growing up, the only tennis player they could watch on television was Goran Ivanisevic.
“That’s how we all [fell] in love with tennis and we started to dream,” Dodig recalled.
Cilic moved to Zagreb at an early age to chase his dreams and later trained under the tutelage of Bob Brett. He reached great heights in the sport, winning a major title at the 2014 US Open, but never let slip his relationship with Dodig. They even won the silver medal together in men’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics.
“We have to be proud. It’s a special story and a special gift. We got from the beginning to the end and [spent] a lot of time sitting together talking about it,” Dodig said. “It’s special and not so many people know, but the journey we have was different from so many others and we’re proud of that. We motivated so many kids around here, around this region, to play tennis. And even now to see so many kids playing tennis because of us, it’s a great thing.”
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The same year he triumphed in Zagreb, Dodig stunned then-World No. 2 Rafael Nadal 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Canada. The Croatian also earned multiple wins against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Milos Raonic and Cilic, and beat the likes of Kei Nishikori.
“I had a great career in singles, I have to admit,” Dodig said. “So many good wins, great memories.”
Throughout his singles career, Dodig excelled in doubles. Eventually, his back began to trouble him and he played his final tour-level singles match in July 2017, transitioning to doubles.
The Croatian won three men’s doubles majors, claiming glory at Roland Garros in 2015 with Marcelo Melo, at the 2021 Australian Open with Filip Polasek and at 2023 Roland Garros with Austin Krajicek. Dodig won six Masters 1000 titles and competed in the Nitto ATP Finals nine times with four different partners: Melo, Marcel Granollers, Polasek and Krajicek.
“I think I made a great, great decision at that time,” Dodig said. “I extended my career for another seven, eight years in doubles and enjoyed amazing success in doubles with great partners.”
Krajicek, with whom Dodig won Year-End ATP Doubles No. 1 presented by PIF honours in 2023, said: “What a tremendous career he’s had. He’s been someone that I’ve looked up to for a long time, and obviously I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. [It has been a privilege] to be a small part of his journey and play alongside him and really get to feel like he’s almost family to me. We had a great time playing together and had a lot of success. It’s awesome to see someone like Ivan, who’s been such a a role model for so many young guys coming into the sport, and to uphold such a high standard of work ethic and grit his whole career has been really fun to watch. I always had a tremendous amount of respect for Ivan and of course wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
For Dodig’s part, the 40-year-old hopes he has made a difference for the next generation.
“I hope that through my sports career that I motivated some kids to find a way and to search for their dreams. Hopefully they can also look to achieve their dreams and if I motivated them a little bit, I’m very proud and happy,” Dodig said. “I always gave everything on the tennis court — for myself, for my family, for the community and for the people who love tennis and will try to be professional. I gave everything into it and I’m very happy and satisfied.”
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