.jpg)
"Hang the Serbs. Never forget, never forgive."
This is the translation of the transparent above. I'm a Serb born in Croatia and I can understand the hate between our people, but I can never understand when somebody involve politics in sport!
And I understand, that we can not blame the whole country for the actions of one man, or group of people, but it's really ugly to see things like this. This was seen on the streets of Split yesterday morning before the matches started.
There were some ugly moments in the Spaladium arena too, where Croatia's fans booed and jeered and refused to stand when Serbia's national anthem was played, and some chanted "Kill the Serb" and other abuse at Djokovic.
Novak, who beat Ivan Ljubicic 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-1 in the first rubber of this tension-filled tie said:
"We had expected the heated atmosphere before we came here, but I'm sorry that some fans behaved the way they did at the start of the match. As the match progressed, things got a bit cooler probably because I was leading."
Ljubicic, a good friend of Djokovic, said he was also annoyed by the chants from the crowd.
"They affected my concentration just as they did his," he said.
"It was strange to see guys, the crowd, whistling on Serbian anthem and the players and so loud on ours. You could feel the tension; you could feel the emotion so it was really difficult for me to play the first couple of games."
Despite the atmosphere in the Spaladium Arena, Novak was just happy that he won:
“It’s sensitive circumstances that we play in and considering the situation between the two countries that they had 20 years back and, of course, it’s still very fresh [in the mind],” he said.
"“We are professional athletes and tennis players and we don’t involve politics in sport. We want to perform our best four the country and win; that’s what I did today and in the end I got a nice appreciation from the crowd for what I have done today so this is what I remember from the match.”
Congrats to Nole and to both of the teams for playing good tennis and for being fair. I hope things like this will stop one day eventually.
(source: GOTOTENNIS, Davis Cup, Pressonline)
Watch Tennis Live
Posts
[I]`Hang the Serbs, never forget, never forgive'[/I]. For WHAT?
Chanting [I]`Kill the Serb'[/I] while Nole was serving. Unbelievable. Total intimidation. Croats come across as a bunch of thugs.
With that attitude, they deserve to get their azzes handed to them. There is justice in the world!
What kind of mentality do they have in Croatia. Where is the police to take these signs down? Unless the police helped put them up?
if it was your loved one got bombed into pieces, the perspective will probably change, period. Sinners have no right to make demands. I am from Asis. I don't encourage this kind of behaviour, but I can fully understand. Especially when justice is still not done after all these years.
It is precisely this type of "rationalization" (in the July 12, 1:05 pm, post) that's used by terrorists all over the world to justify their actions.
This was supposed to be a SPORTing event!
For Anynomus from Asis... I had to left Croatia and everything I had there, because Croats wanted to kill my family just because I'm a Serb. And 200 000 Serbs had to leave their homes and run to save their lives. Don't you mention me bombs, justice or things like that. Where is justice for Serbian people?? There were victims on all sides in that stupid war!
But sport is sport. And we shouldn't interfere politics in sport. People should have just come to Spaladium Arena to cheer for their team. Instead they came to hate Serbian team. That's why I'm glad so much we won.
History reads depending on which side writes it! In every war there are two sides,loss of life and property and rarely does anyone except the munitions factories win. It is time for both sides to get on to rebuilding their own countries and leave the hatred behind because it will rot your country to the core. Such display as was shown during the Davis Cup was deplorable and should be a lesson on how not to behave. Kudos to Ljubicic and djokovic for keeping above the hostility.