As soon as the exhibition match kicked off, with two great friends and tennis showmen, Goran Ivanišević and Mansour Bahrami, in leading roles, and young Nino Serdarušić and Felix Auger Aliassime, in supporting ones, rain started to fall on Umag, setting in steadily as the time went by. Still, even though rain appeared at the worst possible moment, and something like that is a force majeure that even the organizers in Umag have no control over, there was no shortage of positive energy at Stella Maris’ stadium.
The brave quartet defied the rain, doing all kinds of tricks and entertaining the most persistent fans who would not be driven off the wet stands. Stefan Bojić, a tennis acrobat of sorts, contributed to the fantastic atmosphere by demonstrating some of the tricks in his repertoire and showing off some crazy racket moves.
Moreover, the start of the exhibition match was an announcement of sorts of the upcoming World Cup match between the Fiery Ones and the Tricolori in Moscow on Sunday, which will attract the attention of fans across the world: both Ivanišević and Serdarušić came onto the court wearing the red-and-white checkered jerseys, while Bahrami, an Iranian with dual French nationality, came out wearing a Griezmann jersey in an attempt to “provoke” the Croatian players, and the young Auger Aliassime, a Canadian of French descent, admitted he would be supporting the French national team.
Still, Ivanišević recovered quickly and said:
- They can do whatever they want, the World Cup trophy will end up in our hands!
