The Croatian Davis Cup team is up against Chile from March 6 through 9 to pass in the second round of the World Group. The Croatian team’s manager, Goran Prpic, was happy when Croatia got to play Chile in the group, which should not be a difficult opponent, especially on Croatia’s home courts. The Croatian team is full of optimism ahead of the matches, but so are the Chileans. Prpic has no idea what they have to be optimistic about. 

- Maybe they know something we don’t – he said.

The Chileans know a whole lot about Croatians, definitely more than we know about them, so

Tennis most popular after football 

After football, tennis is the most popular national sport in Chile and the most merit for this goes to Marcelo Rios who became world’s number one in 1998, attracting enormous attention on himself from the public and the media. Rios was welcomed by about a million people in Santiago. Among the 12 won ATP tournaments, Marcelo also won the longest-running Croatian tennis tournament in Umag nine years ago. After him, Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzales continued popularising tennis by taking away the only two medals in the Olympics.

The Davis Cup is an important event for Chile, something like a national football team’s match. The Chileans are investing most hope in Nicolas Massu who plays especially well for the national team and if he plays as he did in Athens in 2004, he will be a very dangerous opponent for the Croatian players. The second player, Paul Capdevile, plays much better than can be seen by his current place on the ATP list (93rd). An injury to his abdomen is to be blamed for his placement on the list, but now he is back in shape and he will be a very dangerous opponent.

Chilean reporter Javier Ceppi, who works or El Mercurio, the largest newspaper in Chile, admits himself that Chile does not have too much of a chance of going through to the second round.

- I would give Chile a 30% percent chance of winning in Croatia. It has happened in Davis Cup that

Ancic is the biggest threat

The biggest threat for the Chileans, Ceppi said, is Mario Ancic, who already has experience in winning a Davis Cup tournament, and also plays excellently in doubles. Cilic is also a dangerous player, which is evident because he is Croatia’s number one singles player.

- Being 19 years old, he could crack under the pressure of being Croatia's number one singles player – Javier said.

Croatia is very well known in Chile and Croatian tennis gets great media attention and it all began with Goran Ivanisevic who played against Marcelo Rios on several occasions.

- Ivanisevic a very popular face for everyone around the country and every team he says or does something, it's reflected on Chilean media – the Chilean reporter said.

Besides tennis, Croats are also known for other things, but especially their football achievements.

Footballers are remembered the most 

Mirko Jozic is one of the most famous persons in Chile, he was the coach for Colo Colo when the club won the only Libertadores Cup in 1991 (Chile´s only international football trophy) and he appears on  Chilean media quite often, let's say every two months. He's certainly an idol here in Chile, especially for Colo Colo fans, said Ceppi.

Other players also left a deep trail, such as Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinecki and Davor Suker. Prosinecki and Suker played with Ivan Zamorano at Real Madrid and Sevilla, respectively.

The Chileans paid special attention to the European Football Championship held in Austria and, like the entire world, they were thrilled with the display of Luka Modric.

But Croatia is also known for other things. The Luksic family is one of the wealthiest families in Chile and they take every opportunity to talk about Croatia and their bond with it.

Love for the homeland and sports successes are the two things that present a country the best in the world, so Croatia has no worries about being promoted in the future.