Goran Ivanisevic brought Split to a halt last night. Just over 24 hours after claiming the Wimbledon title, the rank outsider came home to a welcome never seen before in Croatia.

A crowd estimated at 150,000 people thronged the port as the new champion entered the port by boat, accompanied by a flotilla of well wishers.

"It's good to see you again," were the words daubed on the sails of one boat. The Many wore T-shirts saying "I am a genius", which was roughly Ivanisevic's response to John McEnroe's alleged criticism of his one-dimensional game.

"I don't know what to say," Ivanisevic said after he fought his way through the crowd to a stage set up on the city's waterfront. "I expected something big, but I really did not expect something like this."

After superstitiously refusing to shave during the Wimbledon fortnight, he had removed his beard. Now he stripped down to his underpants and put on a New Jersey Nets number three shirt belonging to his late friend Drazen Petrovic, the basketball star to whom he dedicated his Wimbledon victory.

Before boarding a private jet belonging to Bernie Ecclestone's Croat wife Slavica, he had told reporters: "I still haven't woken up from this dream. But how can I? I haven't been to sleep yet."

After touchdown at the city's airport his entourage made the slow journey across Kastelanski bay to the city's harbour. Tens of thousands of people waited for two hours in spitting rain before the flotilla finally entered the harbour. A Croatian army helicopter flew over head, with a large flag slung underneath it. Some cheered others burst into song.

Among those most keen to see him was his mother, who was banned by Ivanisevic from attending Wimbledon on the grounds that she brought him bad luck. "She was at Wimbledon three times before when I lost the final, so I told her things had to change," he explained.

Once ashore, a motorcade took him to the sea-front, where a rock concert in his honour was already in progress. Croatian sports stars such Zvonimir Boban, the Milan midfielder and former captain of the Croatian national team, Igor Stimac, the West Ham defender, and Toni Kukoc, the Chicago Bulls forward, came out to greet him.

"There are only 300,000 of us, but man, we are crazier than anyone else," Ivanisevic shouted to the huge crowd.

Three days ago most Croats were more concerned with whether their government should stay in power. Prime minister Ivica Racan's decision to co-operate with the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague and extradite two war crimes suspects split his coalition administration in two and prompted the prospect of mass anti-government demonstrations.

Now the demonstration organisers have cancelled their plans and the government says its hopeful of winning a confidence motion in the national parliament this Sunday.

Racan, a keen amateur tennis player himself, virtually admitted that Ivanisevic had helped him avert a crisis. "Ivanisevic is a great example," he said. "This was a coincidence sent by providence." The idea that sport had overcome political events was not lost on the crowds.

Many Split resident were keen to stress this was a victory for Dalmatia, the local region. "Dalmatinski dispet," was phrase often repeated by the crowd. Loosely translated it means Dalmatian spite, or the will to win whatever the odds.

"Without dispet any other player would have given up tennis years ago," said a man who gave his name as Jonny. "But dispet has kept him going on until he won." Ivanisevic's family was swamped with telephone calls and telegrams of support, with one coming from the Hague war crimes tribunal, where nine Bosnian Croats await trial.

"We are the proudest people in the world," the nine said. "Thank you for the historic success in the name of the Croatian Homeland."