Thank youuuuuu for your kind words about Serbian players! They have rocketed our national pride to the stars! And as we say it here:"WATCH OUT WORLD - SERBIA IS NOT SUBURBIA!"
The whole country is crazy about Novak,Jelena,Ana and Nenad!It is just phenomenal to be Serbian these days - we recently won EUROSONG and quite possibly Serbia will play in the finals of Roland Garros!
There is one very important thing that distinguishes the Serbs from other Europeans.It is a word that might have a negative connotation in English. "Inat" in Serbian roughly translates to "Spite." But for us, it is the word to use when you do something nobody believes you capable of, just to show them you can do it. You can be better,be smarter and WIN,face any challenge and make SRBIJA proud of you!
"Inat" is a huge motivation among those kids you`re watching.They grew up in a country where an average salary is arund 300 Euros, I mean,can a decent tennis equipment be afforded with that?
No,of course not.
Their homeland was bombed mercilessly in 1999 by 17 NATO countries and America.God knows how much heavy bombs,depleted uranium and cluster bombs were dropped on our lovely little country back then.We usually joke that we became radioactive in 1999 and now have become immune to that but the Europeans haven't, therefore they fear us and don't want us around.
But look at the Serbs at Roland Gaross - the Serbs are there,very much around,can`t miss them, no - playing tennis better then the big ones and the mighty ones in their own garden.
How about that?
In addition to that,the Serbs are traditionally hot-headed. Serbia is somewhat a black sheep of Europe.They constantly send us special envoys from Brussels, crucify us in the media, make films where the Serbs are the bad guys. Or the bad guy,of all world languages, has a bad line in Serbian :).
But,mind you,the black sheep has a character of her own and doesnt want to follow the rest of flock,especially not the sheep that carries the bell:). The black sheep is chewing her own grass and ocassionally sporting her secret talents just to make the others furious.
Or she could be bored cause she is lonely and knows very well that they will only play with her again if she beats them,thats why the black sheep enjoys her games much, much more and she simply can`t wait till the new game starts.And she is all gloating and grinning in her successes.:)
Anyway, despite tumultuous childhood, our champs played their favorrite game,tennis,they played and won and lost,but never gave it up. Summarized in one simple Serbian word -INAT.
Remember that Serbian citizens are not allowed to enter any EU country witout a visa for which the emmbassies torture us and that Novak, Jelena, Ana, Nenad and the new ones who are about to rise to tennis stardom have to stand in lines of 500 people so as to get their passport stamped.And they could live anywhere else on the planet - but they don`t - they live here,with us,in Serbia,with the rest of us that the EU never wanted.
Therefore,we are a happy,proud nation and hopefully the day will come when we will welcome all of you in Belgrade and elsewhere - Serbia has a lot more to offer to Europe and the world.
Maybe we should never even join the EU so as not to lose our fighting spirit and our well-known - INAT.
WARM GREETING FROM SRBIJA
Nina, in Belgrade
