It was not long ago that all things Serbian fascinated Britain’s tennis authorities. The parents of Novak Djokovic were introduced to the president and chief executive of the LTA – red-carpet treatment apparently so lavish there were rumours that the motive was more than simply hands across the Adriatic. Would Djokovic give it all up for GB?

The pressure felt by the player, who was 18 at the time, was enormous but, whatever the temptations, he resisted and is now the most famous sportsman in his nation. Serbia rejoices. As it did in 2001, when Janko Tipsarevic won the Australian Open boys’ title and was ranked as the No 2 junior in the world. He is now No 80 on the ATP Tour, 16 places from the highest of his career, and he reached the third round of a grand-slam tournament for the second time at Roland Garros yesterday, defeating Marat Safin, the former world No 1 from Russia, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

Everywhere you turn, Serbs are burning bright.

Djokovic won his delayed first-round encounter, Ana Ivanovic – now coached by Sven Groeneveld, Greg Rusedski’s former mentor – and Jelena Jankovic are into the third round of the women’s championship and Tipsarevic maintained his focus when Safin was going through his tiresome racket-throwing tantrums on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

There is a fearsome look in Tipsarevic’s eyes when he plays, an intensity accentuated by the four o’clock shadow, the piercings in his eyebrow and lip and the tattoos on his forearms, one of which is a quotation from Dostoevsky. It is not the kind of thing Mr and Mrs Middle Class from Buckinghamshire expect from their tennis players, but Tipsarevic mirrors how the sport is played and who succeeds at it now.

It would be too simplistic to suggest that the reason Serbia is having a purple patch and a lot of other nations – the United States are imploding as their better coaches relocate to Britain – are lashing millions on the sport for precious little return, is that their blood is thicker, they are braver, or that they come from a country that has been torn apart and is being put back together again. But these have a lot to do with it.

Tipsarevic said: “People have to understand that all that we have in tennis here came from mud, from nothing. No one invested one dollar into any one of our players except their parents. There was no big tennis academy, no big tennis federation behind their success. Nobody was investing anything. So the only people we can say thanks to are our families.

“I’m not blaming the federation. We had really bad political issues. We had [Slobodan] Milosevic [the late former President] in power, who not only destroyed the country but completely destroyed our sport. But our federation now is building a tennis centre and tennis is starting to be so popular you cannot imagine. I have a friend who is trying to start work as a coach. He cannot find a free court until September. Everything is booked. Kids, younger, older people, it’s completely booked. Tennis is growing really, really fast.”

And this is a nation that does not possess a single hard court – the surface on which 70 per cent of tennis is played internationally. They have only six carpet courts and the rest are clay. “If I said to my federation that I was preparing for Cincinnati or Indianapolis and would just like a hard court and some balls to use, they could not help me,” Tipsarevic said.

Richard Gasquet probably felt as helpless yesterday as the French No 1 disappeared from his home championship with barely a whimper, defeated 7-6, 6-3, 6-1 by Kristof Vliegen, of Belgium. Vliegen did a convincing impersonation of Maria Sharapova at the ATP player party in Monte Carlo last month and yesterday he followed her victorious footprints on Court Philippe Chatrier. Sharapova defeated Emilie Loit, of France, 6-3, 7-6 but was never entirely convincing.

British interest dwindled further when Jamie Murray, Andy’s brother, was knocked out of the doubles in the first round. Jamie and Eric Butorac, of the United States, lost to Tomas Cibulec, of the Czech Republic, and Jordan Kerr, of Australia.

Venus power

Venus Williams hit a serve at a speed of 206kph (128mph) against Ashley Harkleroad in the second round yesterday. Of the ten fastest serves on the women’s tour, Venus has hit five, but has still not beaten that of Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, of Holland, in the 2006 Cincinnati tournament, marked at 208 kph.