DODIG Ivan

General
FRIENDSHIP
He has been friends with fellow Croatian player Marin Cilic from a young age. "We grew up living almost house to house, 100m away from each other, and Marin is my best friend on the tour. We motivate each other and it means a lot to us, tennis is an individual sport, everyone looks at themselves, but it is very important to have someone with whom you can talk about everything related to tennis and everything else at any time." (gloria.hr, 21 Feb 2019; tportal.hr, 21 Jul 2019)

REPRESENTING CROATIA
Born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he initially represented his country of birth before switching his sporting allegiance to Croatia in 2008. "At the beginning of my career it was not important for me which country's flag is next to my name. However, I always wanted to play for Croatia and I have realised it in 2009." (gloria.hr, 21 Feb 2019)

RETIREMENT THOUGHTS
He says he considered retiring from the sport after he was disqualified during the final of a tournament held in Kolding, Denmark, in 2009. He was disqualified his behaviour during the match and smashed his runner-up trophy during the post-match ceremony. "I'm sorry about that today. But if I hadn't broken that trophy, I wouldn't be where I am today. I had to get all the frustrations out of me, everything was going through my head, I was also thinking about ending my career." (tportal.hr, 21 Jul 2019)