By TERRY MADDAFORD
Mervana Jugic-Salkic needed to find US$175 ($260) to hastily join the Women's Tennis Association at the weekend.
Ranked somewhere off the radar, the Bosnia/Herzegovinan was not a WTA member when she turned up for the ASB Classic doubles final on Saturday.
She was, therefore, ineligible to pick up her US$3250 share of the winner's cheque after she and her Croatian partner Jelena Kostanic had pulled off a huge upset, beating the top seeds and world No 1 pairing of Paola Suarez and Virginia Ruano Pascual 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-1 in the final.
Jugic-Salkic, 24, happily paid her dues to tournament supervisor Georgina Clarke then sat back to savour the greatest moment of her tennis-playing career.
It was an amazing story for two players from the war-torn countries on theAdriatic.
"It is our first tournament together," said 22-year-old Kostanic. "I think were the last team to get into the draw.
"We nearly went out in our first match. We were match point down, after being a set and 4-1 down, but got up to win in three. Now this."
The victory by the unheralded pair mirrored last year's doubles final when unknown Americans Teryn Ashley and Abigail Spears upset top seeds Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva.
"I tried to keep playing tennis during the war but it was not easy," said Jugic-Salkic. "For the past nine months I have lived in Zagreb. But, yes, I consider myself a Bosnian."
In a country where sport is the domain of a favoured few, she is regarded as their second most popular sportswoman behind a gold medal-winning karate star.
The new-found combination play Fed Cup for their respective countries. Jugic-Salkic, with a ranking of 134, is some distance ahead of her team-mates at 599 and 990.
"My coach wants me to play both singles," she said with a laugh."
She also laughed when asked how she would spend her prizemoney.
"I don't know. It is a new experience for me," she said. "Jelena will show me."
To which Kostanic replied: "I'm good at spending money."
And not bad at tennis either.
Ranked 67th on the WTA rankings, Kostanic, unlike her new partner, at least rates a mention in the WTA guide.
Playing out of the same Split club which lists Goran Ivanisevic as its greatest member, Kostanic has won four WTA doubles titles (with different partners) but none since 2002.
"People from our countries have similar personalities," said Kostanic of her partner. "On court we speak Croatian - our languages are very similar."
Asked what weaknesses they had targeted in playing Suarez and Ruano Pascual, Kostanic smiled.
"There were no weaknesses. They are too good."
But, on the day, not good enough.
There was little hint of what was to come when Jugic-Salkic dropped the opening service game and Ruano Pascual held for 2-0. Kostanic held hers and then helped break Suarez in the next for 2-2. That was the last service break of the 56-minute set, which was decided in a tiebreaker.
Kostanic was the only player to drop serve in the second set which lasted just 36 minutes and was won 6-3 by the top seeds. The third set was a 25-minute anti-climax as the top pairing dropped serve in the second and fourth games to trail 4-0 before losing 6-1.
"At 4-0 it was hard not to think about winning," said Kostanic. "We just had to hang in there."
Tennis: Doubles champ signs up to collect cheque
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