TENNIS’ CLUSTER SYNDROME:

If you track the tangle of Serbian history through two World Wars, the Cold War and the recent brutality of Milosevic, you discover quite the twisted tangle of turmoil. But no matter. The small land — which has not been accepted into the European Union and whose 10 millionscitizens need to go through the hassle of attaining visas to travel internationally—has now produced three inspired young stars; gifted athletes with cheerful humor, bright blue-sky personalities and wisdom beyond their years.

The emergence of Novak Djokivic, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic mirrors the “cluster syndrome” in the game in which great champions often seem to emerge from the same place at the same time. Helen Wills and Helen Jacobs lived in the same Berkeley room (at slightly different times), while Don Budge came from the next neighborhood. Long before the Bollettieri Academy was a twinkle in Nick’s eye, the L.A. Tennis Club was a bustling star factory. Then there were all the Aussies and Swedes. Becker and Graf came from the same German valley within 12 miles of each other. Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport all emerged from the Kramer Club in L.A. There are all the Spanish dirtballers. Nadal and Carlos Moya are both from Mallorca. Then there’re the Belgian “sisters,” Justine and Kim, and those very real sisters, Venus and Serena.

Behind this cluster effect is a range of factors. Towering coaching personalities like Aussie Harry Hoppman, L.A.’s Perry Jones and Bollettieri. Other times it’s “just” a single parent like Richard Williams or a single star—Bjorn Borg lifting all his trophies or Anna Kournikova banking all her millions. Politics can be a factor—the fall of the Soviet Union and the Bosnian war. Plus, there are elements of national culture—sporting Aussies, American individualism, the Swedes’ quiet fire-in-their-belly, the gritty determination of the Spaniards or the competitive fire of the Russians and Eastern Europeans. Plus facilities can be key: the L.A. Tennis Club, Nick’s Academy, Moscow’s Spartak Club and Barcelona’s academies which emerged after the ’92 Olympics. But nothing beats the Swiss pool that each winter morphed into a makeshift (so narrow you couldn’t even go for cross-court shots) court that helped kick-start the promising career of Ivanovic, who moved there with her family to avoid bombs.