Igor (Iggy) Jovanovic

Igor “Iggy” Jovanovic was born in and grew up in the Southern Sydney suburb of Rockdale, playing most of his junior at the Illawarra Tennis Club in Rockdale. His parents migrated from the former Yugoslavia in the late 60’s, for his father to take up a position with the NSW Department of Lands as a Surveyor.

Iggy's father was a soccer player and great 100m sprinter, and enticed him to try a number of sports as a youngster, but he gravitated to tennis as the Illawarra Tennis Club was so close to where he lived and a number of children in the neighbourhood played tennis. A lot of his junior tennis was played with players such as and Jason Stoltenberg, as they also played a lot at Illawarra Tennis Club and in the St.George District. After coming through Bill Gilmour’s tennis school, he started working with Dick Crealy, former finalist (two-time winner in doubles and one-time Grand Slam winner in mixed doubles) between the ages of 12 and 16.

He completed his HSC, then forgoing a 4-year Day 3 World Titles Florida 2014 scholarship to Virginia Tech in the US, he continued playing based out of a small town just outside Bordeaux, France. He mainly played in Europe and Asia for five years then returned to Australia where he took over the rights to run three tennis centres in Sydney over an eight year period. The ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals )then contacted him to work with them in a PR role which soon turned into a commercial role for the Asia-Pacific region, working with tournaments and all players including Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

During his years on the ATP Tour, Iggy often heard the request from players to be a sparring partner.

“I spent 11 years working for the ATP so you’d think I’d pick up a few things (tips) and I have,” said Jovanovic, who has a sweet backhand, his favourite shot. “If a guy didn’t have enough of a match they’d say to me, ‘Iggy get your gear on and let’s go for another 40 minutes. I’d be the bunny for them.”

And as expected he has a lot successes to remember from his career on the tour as well as insider stories to tell.

“There’s so many (stories) and some I can’t repeat,” said Jovanovic, laughing. “One memory is something I worked on for nine months. We set up a PR stunt on the (helipad) at the top of the Burj Al Arab (a seven-story hotel in Dubai) with Andre Agassi and Roger Federer. That was a great memory.”

At the ACT Championships in Canberra, Iggy spoke to TSA Secretary Pat Moloney and asked how he could get more involved in seniors tennis and perhaps have a go at an Australian team. "Play more tournaments and get your points up" was Pat's advice. Which is exactly what Iggy did, going on later to play and win his age group singles in both the Australian Championships and the Oceania Regional at Kooyong in 2014.

He practiced 3 to 4 days a week and was selected for the 2014 Dubler Cup Men's 45+ team to compete in Florida USA, together with Mark Hodgson, Garry Nadebaum and Guido Schouteten, and together they battled on to finish 6th out of 24 teams - a creditable performance from a team that had finished 17th the previous year.

“It’s a two week journey,” said Jovanovic, who had an ATP ranking in the mid-700s in his heyday. And so on to the World Individual Titles where he was seeded 6, defeating many well known names until finally succumbing to a fine player from the Netherlands in three sets in the semi-finals.

But his efforts and results over a period of time had served him well, and Iggy was crowned World number 1 in the Men's 45+ division, in May 2014. What a wonderful achievement, and one that Iggy and Australia are justifiably proud of.

But his working life no longer revolves around tennis since the end of 2008 for a number of reasons, including being a family man.

“I was away like 25-30 weeks a year and I had young kids,” Jovanovic said. “My wife gave me a tap on the shoulder — it was the one and only time ever - and said, ‘Hey do you want to be a dad sooner than later.” I said that was a good idea and that was Iggy in action the motivation.”

Iggy is married to Anastasia, his wife of 16 years, and they have two boys. Will is now 10 and Luke, 8, and Iggy does all the dad things like dropping the kids off at school in the morning these days. And he works for the digital arm of Westfield Labs, a worldwide retail landlord for shopping malls

Well done Iggy Jovanovic!! Proof that hard work and dedication does pay off - provided you have the talent!!

Iggy with his wife Anastasia and boys Will and Luke