Goran Ivanišević has spoken to the ATP Croatia Open Umag website
The legend of world tennis, Andre Agassi, will be arriving in Umag on July 15. 2016 and on Saturday evening he will participate in an exhibition match against another tennis legend, his old friend Goran Ivanišević, thus opening the 27th edition of the Konzum Croatia Open Umag, Croatia’s oldest ATP tournament.
Agassi’s first ever visit to Croatia has attracted considerable interest from both domestic and international media as well as tennis fans. It is therefore expected that the exhibition match will be followed by over 4,000 people in the stands and hundreds of thousands of viewers of the Croatian Radio and Television’s Channel Two.
The exhibition match between Agassi and Ivanišević will also be the first event at the Goran Ivanišević Stadium, as the Umag Stadium will be called as of this Saturday.
“We have been waiting for this event for a long time and now it’s finally here! A few months ago I had said it sounded unreal when I would announce out loud that Andre was coming to Croatia. Judging by the interest the event has attracted, I can tell that people in Croatia understand who Andre Agassi is and what he represents in the world of tennis. It will be a relaxing and fun exhibition match, and I am glad that another tennis master, Juan Carlos Ferrero, will be joining us there as well. I am confident the three of us will entertain everyone at the Stadium and in front of the TV screens,” Goran Ivanišević said and added:
“It’s been years since we had last been active players and it’s only natural that nowadays we cannot be half as good as when we had played on the Tour. Andre has back problems that have been bothering him throughout his career and I am really grateful that he will be making such an effort for Umag’s sake. He will be arriving from Vegas for this occasion only and will be going straight back home, and not many would do that.”
As Goran has already announced, former world no. 1, 2003 Roland Garros champion and 2010 Umag winner, Juan Carlos Ferrero, will be a special guest at the event. On Saturday afternoon, before the exhibition match, starting at 4:30 PM, the three tennis legends will hang out with children at the first Kids’ Day of the 27th Konzum Croatia Open Umag. By July 24, the day of the finale, the Umag-based ATP tournament is expected to attract around 100,000 visitors from Croatia and abroad.
