Bulgarian Davis Cup tennis team not lacking hometown support in Christchurch

They might be 17,000km from home, but this weekend’s Davis Cup tennis tie in Christchurch will feel like a local match for Bulgaria.

New Zealand take on the southeast European nation in a World Group 1 playoff at Wilding Park and the visiting side won’t be lacking support.

Christchurch’s Bulgarian community will cheer on the team from a dedicated section of the stands with 30-50 fans expected, including some who have travelled from Auckland, Wellington, and Blenheim.

There were about 150-200 Bulgarians living in Christchurch and 3500 in New Zealand with the majority based in Auckland.

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For Christchurch’s Dani Atanasova, who comes from a proud tennis family, she could barely believe her luck.

Atanasova, who works as an accountant for Goleman Group, and husband Tsetso Ivanov, director of football for the FC Twenty11 club, have served as chaperones for the Bulgarian team.

The couple have lived in Christchurch since 2006 with Dani hailing from the southern Bulgarian city of Pazardzhik. They have made the city home and their two children, Mia, eight, and Nico, two, were both born there.

Dani has driven the players to and from training and showed them some of the city’s tourist attractions – including the Riverside Market.

“It’s unbelievable. If somebody would have told me [Bulgaria would play in Christchurch] I would have laughed in their face like that could never happen,” she said.

“Having them come to Christchurch is unbelievable. For the 16 and a half years I’ve been here this has never happened and everybody is so excited and enthusiastic. We can’t wait.”

Tennis runs deep in Atanasova’s family.

Her mother Veska is a former national table tennis player and coach, while father Iliya, who is visiting and will attend the tie, has been a tennis coach for many years, working with the Bulgarian Tennis Federation.

Dani’s brother Mihail is a former competitor and now coach, guiding the Bulgarian under-18 girls’ side to their first European team championship last year.

Dani played junior tennis and was involved when she first moved to Christchurch in 2006, winning back-to-back women’s interclub titles with Hagley Park.

She has also coached, graduating from the National Academy of Sciences with a bachelor’s and master’s degree, majoring in tennis and badminton.

Football is the most popular sport in Bulgaria, but tennis was a big deal. Grigor Dimitrov, who hasn’t played Davis Cup for several years and isn’t featuring in this tie, is Bulgaria’s greatest player in history, rising to third in the men’s singles rankings in 2017.

“A lot of kids play tennis in Bulgaria. It’s got a very big base of amateurs. A lot of people are playing tennis just for fun. They also have tournaments for amateurs as well,” Atanasova said.

Having a Bulgarian sports team in Christchurch was a rare, but significant event, Bulgarian Society South Island chair Milen Marinov said.

There would be plenty of green, red, and white in the crowd – Bulgaria’s national colours, and possibly even some tupan drums – a traditional instrument in Bulgarian folk music.

“Personally for me it’s quite a big thing because we don’t have a Bulgarian embassy in New Zealand, so local New Zealanders don’t know much about my country,” Marinov said.

“This is an opportunity for us to tell you all we’re here, we’re good people, we are people who know what is fun, and like to have fun and we want to go this weekend and have fun, regardless of the final score.”

The winner advances to a World Group 1 tie in September with the loser relegated to World Group 2.