Although Goran Ivanišević may have never won Umag, in the end, Umag won him. The large tennis stadium located right on the beach at Stella Maris resort, where the ATP Plava Laguna Croatian Open has been held since 1990, bears witness to this endless love. In 2016, Umag’s central, seashell-shaped stadium received a new, but already famous name – Goran Ivanišević ATP Stadium.

The rich history of the ATP tournament in Umag has been marked with amazing and often dramatic matches in which top international tennis players lost to far less experienced players. Many won their first titles in Umag, some abandoned matches due to injury or exhaustion, and the finals lasted from a speedy 61 minutes (Thiem and Sousa in 2015) to an exhausting 170 minutes (Verdasco and Andreev in 2008). Carlos Moya, the local audience favourite, has won the tournament five times while Croatian players have only celebrated twice, Marin ...