From Wimbledon to Wall Street

It's a Friday morning in New York and while many of his friends are competing across the other side of the world at the Australian Open, Mario Ancic is finding his feet in another arena - Wall Street.

The former World number seven, who so famously became a national celebrity at the age of 18 after beating Roger Federer on his Wimbledon debut, was once described by six-time Grand Slam Champion Boris Becker as "The future of tennis- his name is Mario Ancic."

But now five years after injury and illness forced his retirement he's swapped his tennis whites for a suit as an investment banker at Credit Suisse. As Ancic explains "my life was changed upside down".

"You go from playing five sets at the Australian Open and feeling good, to basically laying in bed for almost a whole year.

After numerous tests and trying to play through the exhaustion, Ancic was diagnosed with mononucleosis in 2007. Fevers, thyroid abnormalities and heart issues followed:

"For a few months I was playing extremely sick while I was supposed to be laying down and relaxing. I was spitting blood during training, so then when they discover what it is, there were tons of things messed up - my thyroid, my heart, mononucleosis wasn't the main issue. My immune system on top of everything was totally broken

"That was the beginning of the end."

Mononucleosis otherwise known as glandular fever has started to impact on numerous top tennis players including Petra Kvitova and Robin Soderling, who chose to retire last year.

Ancic's life was in danger: "I had very severe heart issues that I was battling through even surviving."

Despite his health problems, Ancic found a determination and strength to keep going. He made a comeback in 2008 reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, with victories against fifth seed David Ferrer and 22nd seeded Fernando Verdasco. Roger Federer however was too strong and Ancic suffered defeat. After a further two years on tour, mononucleosis returned and the prospect of back surgery loomed, Ancic took the tough decision to retire: "It was one of the hardest days in my life".

Ancic decided on a legal career in the United States, enrolled in law school at the University of Split in Croatia and then last year graduated from law school at Columbia University in New York.

Not many of his class mates knew they had an Olympic medalist and former top ten tennis player alongside them:

"I'm enjoying it"

"There was an evening at Columbia that I organised where Novak (Djokovic) came and gave a speech to about 1,000 students about sports business and decisions that he's making as a leader in one sport.

The Croatian has even helped the world number One Djokovic in his preparations for a Grand Slam Final:

"We were actually hitting before the Finals of the Us Open.I was warming him up!"

"At this point the main weakness is Novak, it's himself, he serves really well, he's getting much more free points than he did, he's probably the best returner in the game which puts pressure on you, back of the court the best defensive player, Novak is doing this on all four surfaces. Man it must be a nightmare!"

The big-serving Croatian won three singles titles, reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2004 and achieved his career-high ranking in 2006, but arguably one of his greatest achievements was winning the Davis Cup for Croatia in 2005 against Slovakia.

"My childhood dream because I was ball boy of the Davis Cup team in 1996, my goal was to be on that team one day".

Ancic not only achieved his goal, but lifted the trophy with Roger Federer's current coach Ivan Ljubicic who he thinks will help develop the Swiss player's game:

"He's had great success coaching Milos Raonic, and I do think he will bring new things to his game, they've been close friends for a lot of years and Ivan played with almost all of the top players so I think he can help him from an ex-players side.

"What Roger is doing, it's incredible"

At the age of 34 he's the second best player in the world and he lost three Slams only to Novak, Wimbledon will be his best shot. I think Roger has another Grand Slam in him".