Croatian-American tennis player Bernarda Pera has been running the headlines in Rome with her incredible three-match winning streak. She defeated the world number 29, Caroline Dolehide in her previous match by 7-6(6),6-3. Pera will next face the top-ranked tennis star, Iga Swiatek in the R64 of the 2024 Italian Open. Swiatek has recently won a title in Madrid and she has been in a destructive mood at the moment. Miracles do happen in sports, but to do that she will need all the stars to be aligned at the same time on Thursday (May 9).

Talking about stars, there is a superstar on Bernarda Pera’s team. His name is Velimir Zovko, and he’s the current coach of this left-handed tennis star. Zovko is also the coach of the Croatian Davis Cup national team and Pera’s Croatian roots will help her combine with Zovko more effectively. In fact, Bernarda Pera also represented the Croatian national team from 2009 to 2013. The 29-year-old Pera made her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 US Open and since then she has only two titles in her career so far. It will be interesting to see if Zovko can help her land her third title this season.

However, Velimir Zovko comes up with a vast experience in the coaching field. He was the head coach of the Croatian national team at the Feb Cup (now called BJK Cup) in 1999. Then a year later, he became the head coach of the Croatian Olympic team. He has worked with some of the biggest stars of Croatian tennis like Ivan Ljubicic, Ivan Beros, Ivan Abramovic, Jelena Kostanic and many more.

On the international level, the renowned tennis coach has previously collaborated with Bernard Tomic, Polina Lejkina and a few more. His contributions to Balkan tennis are enormous. However, there is another superstar from this part of the world who helped put Balkan countries on the map of the tennis world. Bernarda Pera got the chance to meet with him once. What did she say after their first meeting?

“He really raised the popularity of tennis in the Balkans” – Bernarda Pera on Novak Djokovic’s influence

Last year during an interview, Pera recalled the moment when she got the chance to meet the Serbian tennis star. Novak Djokovic has a lot of fan followings in Croatia and the craze surrounding the world no.1 tennis star, is enormous. Although she can’t recall anything about when she first met Novak Djokovic. But she spoke about the influence he has in that region and how he helped to build recognition for the sport. “I think he is certainly more popular in the Balkans. Before, there was more basketball and football, and now tennis is even more popular than basketball in our region,” Pera.

She further went on to add, “He really raised the popularity of tennis in the Balkan countries, and he also helped make Serbia and the Balkan countries heard in the world.” Now, Bernarda Pera has fans in both Croatia and the USA. She’s currently ranked at 77th spot in the women’s singles ranking. Can she get into the Top 50 this year?