By Will Vandervort (Contact / Staff Bio)
May 9, 2008 - 12:16 a.m. EST

CLEMSON — When Ani Mijacika’s opponents see her take the tennis court, they cannot help but be intimidated by her presence.

At 5-foot-10, the Clemson University sophomore carries herself with a self-confidence that seems as if she knows she is going to win before the first tennis ball is tossed into the air or ground stroke is hit back across court. Clemson tennis coach Nancy Harris noticed that quality the second she laid eyes on the Makarska, Croatia native.

“I pointed and said, ‘That one will be top 60 in the world someday,’ and it was Ani,” Harris said earlier this week when recalling her first encounter with her No.1 singles player. “She was playing as she does. She plays such beautiful tennis, so fluid. She’s just a gorgeous tennis player.”

And that’s part of the reason why Mijacika, the nation’s No. 2 ranked player heading into the NCAA Tournament, has complied a 52-13 record in her first two seasons at Clemson, including a 27-6 ledger this year.

Mijacika and the Tigers will host the first round of the NCAA Clemson Regionals today, starting at 11 a.m., at the Sloan Tennis Center in Clemson. Furman will play Michigan at 11 a.m., while Clemson’s match against Winthrop is expected to begin at 2 p.m. The two winners will meet Saturday with an opportunity to advance to next week’s Sweet 16 Round.

Mijacika and teammate Carol Salge were also selected to participate in the 2008 NCAA Individual Championships. The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 21-26 at the Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.

Mijacika earned the No. 2 overall seed in the singles competition, while she and Salge will team up as the fourth-seeded duo in the doubles tournament.

Mijacika will be making her second appearance in the national singles championship and is considered one of favorites to win it all. Last season, she fell in the opening round of singles play but reached the semifinals in the doubles tournament to garner All-America honors.

“Right now, I’m focused on the team and not the singles at all,” Mijacika said. “We are trying to do the best we can right now for the team. That’s the focus right now. When we see what happens with the team, then we will move on to the singles.”

Harris first met Mijacika about two years ago when she was on a recruiting trip to Split, Croatia scouting for potential players. Harris had not even heard of Mijacika until one of the Croatian national coaches told her about this very tall and talented player that had the skills to be a top-flight player.

Not knowing what really to expect or what Mijacika or her game looked like, Harris said it did not take her long to notice what she said was “a pure athlete.”

“That’s what I saw in Ani,” the Clemson coach said. “She had all the tools and now we just have to take her tools and teach her how to use the court more efficiently.”

One of the tools Mijacika did not have when she came to Clemson, however, was what makes her so intimidating to her opponents today – her self-confidence.

“When I signed with Clemson I wasn’t doing too good,” Mijacika said.

In fact, she wasn’t doing much of anything. The management major had played in a few tournaments since finishing high school a few years before, but they were nothing major. She was basically playing tennis for recreational purposes when Harris saw her.

In Croatia, athletes are not supported like they are in the United States, especially female athletes. Mijacika had, for the most part, given up on the idea of playing professional tennis or any form of competitive tennis once she graduated from high school.

“I was thinking at the time, that I’m quitting tennis and I’m going to college in Croatia without tennis,” she said.

But after meeting Harris and learning all about Clemson through e-mail correspondence and what she could find or wanted to find on the Internet, Mijacika realized her tennis career was not over, but just beginning.

“I started thinking about it because it is something different because I can play tennis too,” the 20-year-old said. “I did not know anything about college or that kind of stuff because it is totally different at home.”

Mijacika started playing tennis when she was six years old after some of her friends joined a tennis school. While being taught by her dad’s cousin, the Clemson star grew to love the sport and played it as often as she could.

She even became her country’s top player for a little while, and was ranked in the top 30 by the European Tennis Association before injuries slowed her down.

“I really liked it,” she said. “I also played other sports like volleyball, but I stuck with tennis.”

But as much as she loved and played the sport, Mijacika could not get her swagger back, at least that’s what she thought.

“I never really had that much confidence in myself,” she said.

But Mijacika kept playing and eventually started winning. She knew then that maybe she could go on, but she did not know how to go about it. She knew she wasn’t quite ready to be a professional, and that’s when Clemson found her.

“Two years ago I was winning a few tennis tournaments back home and people would ask me why I’m I going to college,” she said. “I just told them that I wanted to try something new.

“I wasn’t ready to go pro. I have never really believed in myself, but now I’m getting pretty confident. We will see. I have two more years to go before I finish college, so we will see what happens.”

At Clemson, Mijacika has built her confidence up, thanks in large part to a couple of matches during her freshman year. It all started in February of 2007 when she defeated Notre Dame’s Colleen Rielley, the No. 31 ranked player at the time, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at the National Indoor Championships.

She then went on to defeat Florida State’s Nicola Slater (No. 76) and Duke’s Melissa Mang (No. 59) as well. But it wasn’t until she defeated North Carolina’s Jenna Long, the No. 5 player in the nation at the time, Mijacika gained complete confidence in her skills.

“I think Ani is still going to get ten times better,” Harris said. “In my opinion she still has a lot of fun in front of her to enjoy. Despite having a few injuries here and there, she is still one of the best in the country. I think she would be better right now if she had not had to deal with these challenges.”

Those challenges were complications from a cyst that was removed from a muscle in Mijacika’s leg. It kept her off the courts for two months at the start of the year, including one month on crutches.

But she came back as good as ever, if not better. Mijacika held the No. 1 ranking two times this spring, the first Clemson player, male or female, to own such an accomplishment.

“I think her overall personality, her demeanor on the court, her sense of calm and sense of presence makes her a future world class player,” Harris said. “She has the whole package and all she is going to do between now and the time that she graduates is perfect it.”

Mijacika has 16 wins over ranked opponents and has been ranked in the top 5 nationally in all eight individual polls this spring.

“The first time I jumped to No. 1, I felt so much pressure,” Mijacika said. “I played in a match right after that against South Carolina and I was so nervous. I have never been so nervous in my life. When I slipped to No. 2, that’s when I realized that it is just a number. It doesn’t mean anything. I could be one or 51, but I’m still the same person.”

And that’s a person Harris loves having on her team. Early this year during the National Indoor Championships, Mijacika was watching a team-match when the match was settled before all singles matches were complete. At that point, players can elect to stop their own match if they so chose to do so.

In the match Mijacika was watching, the higher ranked girl, who was down a set and was losing the second one decided to stop the match so it would not go against her record. Though it was perfectly within the rules of the sport at the team level, that player’s decision got to Mijacika and when she was faced with the same decision the next day – though she was still injured at the time and was headed for a sure loss – Mijacika decided to finish the match.

“I have had people come up to me in tournaments and tell me that she is the greatest sports woman they have ever seen play,” Harris said. “That’s something that comes within. That’s a champion. That’s a great sports woman.

“She did not have to make that choice… That’s a great example of her sportsmanship.”