IN THE list of heinous deeds committed by former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, the degradation of anything to do with tennis in his country is minimal.

Nevertheless it is testament to the current gang of young players, and those individuals who offered them much necessary support, that from facilities that were dilapidated long before parts of Belgrade were reduced to rubble by the Nato bombing in 1999 has sprung a vibrant tennis nation.

Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic, by reaching the later stages of the French Open, have used a Grand Slam tournament to underline their promise. They are the standard-bearers for a sport that takes paramount billing in a country that is striving to establish a new identity.

All three initially were forced to pursue their aspirations elsewhere. Ivanovic benefited from Swiss financial backing and honed her talents in Basle. Jankovic followed the time-honoured route across the Atlantic to Nick Bollettieri’s famed academy in Bradenton, Florida, emulating the example set by her and Ivanovic’s role-model Monica Seles. Djokovic’s potential was spotted by the former Yugoslavian star Niki Pilic, who had established an academy in Munich.

Janko Tipsarevic, Serbia’s second-ranked player, who figured in last year’s Davis Cup win over Britain in Glasgow and knocked former world No 1 Marat Safin out of this French Open in the second round, summed up the elation. “All that we have in tennis here came from mud, from nothing,” said the 23-year-old. “Nobody in our country invested one dollar or one euro into any one of our players. We had really bad political issues. We had Milosevic in power, who not only destroyed the country but completely ruined our sport.

“Just a few years ago, when I was a young junior, the top-ranked Serb was something like 700 in the world. Our courts were a disgrace, people were not allowed to care about tennis. Now we have three players in the world’s top 10s and moving up the rankings.”

Although football and basket-ball are the most established sports in the former Yugoslavian republic, the exploits of the three youngsters as well as leading doubles player Nenad Zimonjic have understandably captured the public imagination to the extent that in September, Serbia will host an Australian team potentially spearheaded by Lleyton Hewitt in the Davis Cup’s World Group playoffs in front of sell-out crowds of more than 20,000 for three days in succession.

Tipsarevic took up the story again: “I have a friend who is trying to start to work as a coach and he cannot find a free court until September. Everything is completely booked. So tennis is growing in our country really, really fast.”

There is a distinct affinity between the Serbian players. In the aftermath of Djokovic’s semi-final loss to Rafael Nadal on Friday there was a gathering on the players’ terrace. In the midst stood the giant figure of Slobodan Zivojinovic, Wimble-don semi-finalist in 1986 and now president of the Serbian Tennis Federation. He offered a comforting arm around the shoulder of a disappointed Jankovic, who was supporting her compatriots after losing her semi-final to Justine Henin a day earlier.

Zivojinovic merited international coverage on the world’s news pages in 2000 when his infant son Viktor was kidnapped by members of a Serbian mafia clan and returned for the ransom sum reported to be more than 2m German marks.

Such trauma will never be forgotten, but Zivojinovic was insistent when he discussed the emergence of his country’s new talent. “It was harder for the three of them than it was for me when I was trying to make my way as a tennis player,” he said. “The families had to suffer a lot and the parents had very hard decisions to make. To raise talented kids during the war when we were affected by embargoes was so hard. To send them away to other countries was even harder. There was a lot of emotional pressure.

“But this is one of the keys if you are hungry for success. If you see what the rest of the world has but you don’t possess it yourself, then you crave it all that much more.”

Finally plans are in place for a national tennis centre to be built in Belgrade to satisfy the growing desire to take up rackets shown by the nation’s youth. Admittedly it will not be on the same grandiose scale as British tennis’s new home in Roehamp-ton, with a budget of just over £3m compared with the £40m spent by the Lawn Tennis Association. “Ours is a different story to Britain’s, but we must be realistic,” said Zivojinovic. “At the moment we cannot expand in the way we would like to make room for the many more young players that are coming through. The interest is huge.”

And forgotten is the episode of last year that saw Great Britain reportedly try to lure Djokovic’s services by offering the family a more luxurious life in England. “At the time, if that was what Novak wanted to do, then I would have listened to his wishes,” said Zivojinovic. “But that is all in the past. Serbia is now a top tennis nation.”