Serbia's Roland Garros success needs infrastructure

BELGRADE, June 13 (Reuters) Serbia needs to act quickly to build on the achievements of its players at the French Open and ensure long-term success through investment in better facilities, players and experts say.

Roland Garros semi-finalists Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic and finalist Ana Ivanovic got a heroes' welcome at the weekend in Belgrade. But to ensure more such celebrations the training infrastructure needs to be put in place.

''Funds for this have been allocated and it is now up to the authorities to invest them properly by building a tennis academy like those western countries have,'' former Yugoslavia Davis Cup coach Radmilo Armenulic told Reuters.

''We also need more quality coaches and we may well have to import them from abroad because there aren't too many here at the moment,'' he said.

Jankovic, who did much of her training in the United States, said better facilities in Serbia would help ensure that upcoming players would not be forced to move abroad to train.

''I really hope that they will build a tennis centre so that it will make it a lot easier for the younger generation ... so they don't have to go outside the country to practice,'' Jankovic told Reuters in a telephone interview from Birmingham, England.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH While Serbia has decent facilities for successful team sports such as basketball and volleyball, it has to start almost from scratch to put tennis in the same bracket.

Belgrade's few indoor facilities are regularly overbooked, most hard-surface outdoor courts are dilapidated while the highly popular red clay also needs better maintenance.

The situation is even worse in central and southern parts of Serbia, where half-decent tennis courts are hard to come by.

''Building tennis centres and employing quality staff to select the best among the upcoming talents is not rocket science, it just requires hard work and a strategy,'' said Armenulic, who steered Yugoslavia to the 1988 World Group semi-finals.

That, however, may prove to be easier said than done in a country whose sporting capacity had been decimated by years of political strife, international isolation and economic mismanagement.

Armenulic believes Serbia's authorities, who aim to get closer to the European Union, will change things.

''I am quite sure this government will do more for sports and tennis in particular as these young men and women have done so much for their country and its international image,'' he said.

REUTERS TB RK1014