Chicago’s best hope for Olympic glory in Athens this month could be a 36-year-old Serbian guy who lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Ravenswood. Ilija Lupulesku is rarely recognized in Chicago, but from time to time he’s reminded that he used to be a superstar, a legend known by a single name.
Asked if he has a table at home, the top-ranked table tennis player in the U.S. snorts, “No, I don’t have a table in my basement.” After pounding forehands at the tiny Park District gym in Kenwood where he practices several times a week, Lupi explained why he needs to get back to Europe to train properly for Athens. “It’s not professional here,” he says. “Nobody practices like pros. Here they practice every day, but just once a day–that’s not enough.” Last week Lupi flew to Belgrade to make his final preparations for the games in a more disciplined atmosphere.
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Most professional players demonstrate their gifts at an early age: Lupi won his first tournament at 10. At 12 he was practicing four hours a day, and by his midteens he was playing internationally, missing weeks of school at a time but earning an income well above the Yugoslavian average.
The standard move for someone in Lupi’s position would have been to join a team in the well-financed German league, but in 2001 Lupi got a phone call from Jasna, who was remarried and living in Chicago. Jasna told Lupi about a Chicago businessman who had a proposition for him.
Lupi believes the Killerspin strategy is already paying off, improving the quality of the American game and raising its profile. For proof he points to ESPN’s intensive coverage of Killerspin’s Extreme Table Tennis Championship, which brought 16 top international players to Chicago last December. “This has never happened before,” he says.
