“He saved my life,” Novak Djokovic’s coach Goran Ivanisevic had helped arrange the escape of former Australian Open winner Mirjana Lucic-Baroni who was a victim of abuse and assault by her own father

Mirjana Lucic won an Australian Open doubles title only after 12 months of turning pro.

Mirjana Lucic, Novak Djokovic's coach Goran Ivanisevic (Images via Croatia Week, The Hindu)

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, a former Croatian tennis player who once partnered with Martina Hingis to win the Australian Open doubles title only twelve months after turning pro had a huge obstacle- her father. But she was saved by none other than Goran Ivanisevic who helped her arrange an escape to America. Mirjana is still thankful to Ivanisevic for his help.

Although Lucic could not make a big name for herself in professional tennis as she was expected to do considering her prowess at a young age, she did overcome all the hardships to produce something remarkable. But things were really tough for the Croatian who had to take beatings from her own father during her childhood.

The Croatian had narrated this horror story of her father physically assaulting her for the first time when she was only five years of age because she had lost to someone five years older than her. She claimed that it became a consistent affair thereafter till it crossed the threshold and forced her to snap back at Marinko, her father.

Also Read: “You sit down and see the people betting next to you,” Marco Trungelliti accuses ITF of neglecting match-fixing and making players ‘star of the circus’

How did Goran Ivanisevic help Mirjana Lucic?

The Croatian then talked about how she and her mother ran into Goran Ivanisevic while fleeing her father’s house. Mirjana Lucic revealed that Goran offered them to stay at his house and then helped them arrange an escape out of the country.

“Goran saved my life. I will never forget him,” said Mirjana once. She had also revealed how she moved to America. “It was like something out of a James Bond movie, except that it was our lives,” Lucic had said (via Bleacher Report) while describing how she and her siblings as well as her mother crept out of a Zagreb hotel room and took a hiding into the countryside until a political asylum was arranged.

It is worth mentioning that Mirjana escaped from Croatia and moved to America where she worked as a cashier to support her family, Her tennis came back on track only after she married Daniel Baroni in 2007. Mirjana played for a while but could never regain her lost touch. Eventually, she hung her racket in 2018.