{"id":696549,"date":"2026-07-17T11:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/696549\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:51:09","slug":"ivan-dodig-opens-tennis-centre-in-medugorje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/696549\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Dodig opens tennis centre in Me\u0111ugorje"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                by <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/author\/admin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">croatiaweek<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    July 17, 2026<\/p>\n<p>                    in<\/p>\n<p>                    <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/category\/sport\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sport<\/a>                <\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-166896\" class=\"size-full wp-image-166896\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dodig-tennis-center.jpeg\" alt=\"Dodig Tennis Centre\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-166896\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo: Dodig Tennis Centre)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">ZAGREB, 17 July (Hina) \u2013 The Dodig Tennis Centre, built in Me\u0111ugorje by the family of Croatia\u2019s Davis Cup captain Ivan Dodig, was officially opened on Tuesday with an exhibition doubles match featuring Dodig, Novak Djokovic, Marin \u010cili\u0107 and Mate Pavi\u0107.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The opening ceremony at the internationally known Catholic Marian pilgrimage site attracted some of the biggest names in Croatian and European sport, particularly tennis. Former German world No. 1 Boris Becker was among those in attendance, while several thousand spectators enjoyed the friendly exhibition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Addressing those gathered on behalf of the family, the centre\u2019s director and Ivan Dodig\u2019s brother, \u017deljko Dodig, thanked the guests for attending the opening. He said the tennis complex was the result of years of hard work, sacrifice and the collective commitment of the Dodig family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The ceremonial ribbon was cut by Ivan Dodig and Darijana Filipovi\u0107, the Croatian National Assembly\u2019s candidate for the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the forthcoming elections. She described the project as a source of pride for Me\u0111ugorje, Herzegovina and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and said it marked the beginning of a new chapter for tennis in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Dodig Tennis Centre covers around 25,000 square metres and has been designed as an integrated complex combining professional training facilities, accommodation, recovery services and additional sports amenities. It features six tennis courts, including five hard courts and a centre court with seating for around 2,000 spectators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Plans also envisage covering part of the complex to allow year-round use. Ivan Dodig has previously said he intends to establish a tennis academy for young players, host international tournaments in Me\u0111ugorje and, in the longer term, bring an event on the ATP Tour calendar to the centre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ivan Dodig,\u00a0born in 1985 in Me\u0111ugorje,\u00a0is a Croatian former professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He reached his career-high doubles ranking of World No. 2 in September 2023. He is a seven-time Grand Slam champion, having won men\u2019s doubles titles at the 2015 French Open with Marcelo Melo, the 2021 Australian Open with Filip Pol\u00e1\u0161ek and the 2023 French Open with Austin Krajicek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In mixed doubles, Dodig won the 2018 and 2019 French Opens and 2019 Wimbledon Championships, all alongside Latisha Chan, and the 2022 Australian Open partnering Kristina Mladenovic.\u00a0\u00a0Dodig has won 24 doubles titles on the ATP Tour.\u00a0He together with Marin \u010cili\u0107\u00a0won a silver medal in men\u2019s doubles at the 2020 Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>        \tSign up to receive the Croatia Week Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by croatiaweek July 17, 2026 in Sport (Photo: Dodig Tennis Centre) ZAGREB, 17 July (Hina) \u2013 The Dodig&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-696549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}