Istrian Riviera circuit is the oldest Croatian international tennis tournament. It was born in 1972. First edition has been played in two Istrian towns, Porec and Umag, and throughout the years many Istrian towns hosted the tournament; from north to south host towns were Rovinj, Umag, Novigrad, Poreč, Vrsar, Pula, Rabac, Ićići and Opatija.
Today Istrian Riviera is all-male circuit but from 1973 until 1982 men enjoyed female company. Some big names were present at the tournament like 1977 French Open winner Mima Jaušovec, 1984 Olympics silver medalist Sabrina Goleš and 1988 Olympics bronze medalist Manuela Maleeva.
Since introduction of ATP points in 1982 there were only men left. Formats of the tournament have been changing, many players filled the draws and lot of them used Istrian Riviera as a career springboard. Prior to his triumph in Wimbledon Boris Becker couldn’t qualify for the main draw in Istria; former number one and French Open winner Thomas Muster perfected his clay court skills here; former Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic couldn’t win the trophy in Istria and same goes for former world number 3 and Davis Cup winner Ivan Ljubicic. Just to mention a few of the big names 1996 Wimbledon winner Richard Krajicek, 1998 Australian Open winner Petr Korda, former US Open and Wimbledon finalist Cedric Pioline were all part of Istrian Riviera circuit history. Most of them didn’t win in Istria but all followed their dreams and become part of the tennis history.
