Goran Crusoe, the Beatles and Cinderella all in one

Davor Huic

After three sleepless nights and two days of wild partying, Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic planned to take off on a "Robinson cruise" in the Adriatic with his "girlfriend Friday".

"I am glad we are finally going to spend some time together. It is wonderful that he is so popular, but I now want him only for myself. I had to share him for long enough," said fashion model Tanja Dragovic, Ivanisevic's girlfriend.

The couple planned to sail off on Ivanisevic's yacht and make a tour of the islands on the Croatian side of the Adriatic.

Ivanisevic said he only wanted to rest for a while and live "like a Robinson Crusoe and his girlfriend Friday", after two days and nights of wild partying.

Dragovic was not at the All England Club to witness Ivanisevic's historic victory on Monday, sparking rumours that their relationship was in trouble.

But she later told the press Ivanisevic did not want her -- or his mother and sister -- to attend, because they made him nervous.

The three waited for him at Split airport on Tuesday, together with thousands of other people who hijacked him immediately for most of the next two days.

WHO ELSE IS COMING?

The perennial "Bad Boy" of Croatian tennis was given an ultimate hero's welcome on the Split waterfront, with more than 150,000 Wimbledon-crazed fans celebrating his first title in four attempts.

"I just could not believe it was all for me...I looked at the crowd and thought: 'What is this? Who else is coming, where are The Beatles?'," Ivanisevic said later of his amazement.

And amazed he was, for he stripped himself down to his underwear right there on the stage and said he would take a bath in the not-too-clean waters of Split harbour -- which he did not do in the end.

Other people did crazy things -- perhaps trying to live up to the self-imposed definition of Split as "the craziest city in the world".

AC Milan soccer star and former Croatia captain Zvonimir Boban shaved his head clean in honour of Ivanisevic's Wimbledon victory.

Hajduk Split soccer club, who took over as national champions from arch-rivals Dinamo Zagreb this year for the first time since 1995, contracted Ivanisevic to play for them.

"If I could only play for two minutes against Dinamo, my dream would come true," said Ivanisevic, one of Hajduk's most fervent fans.

CINDERELLA

Women carried banners: "Goran, marry me" and "Goran, show us your tattoo".

The street party went on deep into the night, and then the whole entourage embarked on a motorboat and sailed off to Bol on the island of Brac, the venue of the popular Croatian Open women's tournament.

There, in a nightclub owned by another popular soccer player -- Igor Stimac, formerly of West Ham United and the Croatian national team -- the party went on until dawn.

It was Ivanisevic's third sleepless night in a row, but he kept on going without respite, at one point joining the band on the stage and singing a popular song "Dalmatian I am".

Midnight came and went but the dream did not fall apart as Ivanisevic had feared, comparing himself with Cinderella in an attempt to describe the indescribable.

"Cinderella is nowhere, a barefoot prince comes and allows me to win Wimbledon...Luckily it isn't a fairytale, so the Wimbledon bowl was not transformed into a plate after midnight."