Yugoslav Import Gets Domestic Aid : Tennis: North Hollywood High player, faced with return to fractured homeland, to move into residence of area family.

North Hollywood High tennis player Dragan Jovanovski, the reigning City Section 4-A Division singles champion, came to the United States from Yugoslavia to get away from the political upheaval confronting his homeland.

But Jovanovski, who left Yugoslavia in 1989, has found that life in these United States is not always sublime.

In the span of one month, Jovanovski, faced with the prospect of having to return to his native land because he had nowhere to stay, was given a reprieve by a stranger’s generosity and will be able to defend his title next year and possibly earn a college scholarship.

But he also learned that he was never eligible to play high school tennis in California, and thus should not be in possession of the trophy he won in June as a junior.

Jovanovski was headed back to Yugoslavia this summer because his guardian, Yugoslav emigrant Jorgo Ognenovski, said he no longer could afford to keep Jovanovski at his apartment in North Hollywood where he lives with his two children. Ognenovski pleaded for financial assistance so that Jovanovski, 17, would not have to return to the poor conditions and political unrest in Yugoslavia.

Gabriel Ramos of Shadow Hills contacted The Times in mid-June and was put in touch with Ognenovski. Within a week, Ramos, 44, had organized a meeting with the two Yugoslavs and his family, which includes his wife Annamaria and children Nicole, 12, and Rafael, 11.

Ramos, a hairstylist who is a casual tennis player, said he wants to support Jovanovski in part because Ramos’ son Victor, then 19, was killed in an automobile accident in 1986.

“We liked Dragan’s quiet demeanor and he seems very nice,” Ramos said. “Also, I think my two kids miss having a big brother around.”

Ognenovski was pleased, to say the least.

“It is a very big relief,” he said. “I did not want (Jovanovski) to go back to the problems in Yugoslavia.”

No living arrangement has been finalized, but both parties say Jovanovski is expected to move into the Ramoses’ home within four months, pending a planned visit to Yugoslavia by Jovanovski.

Jovanovski said that the turmoil in Yugoslavia is affecting his plans.

“If the situation gets better, I will go home later this month and won’t be back for four months,” Jovanovski said. “I’m very excited to live with (the Ramos family), but I’m worried about my family (in Skopje, in the southwest corner of the country near the Albanian border) too.”

City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness said that Jovanovski, who would be living in the Van Nuys High attendance area with the Ramos family, should have no difficulty retaining eligibility at North Hollywood, where he has been enrolled since 1989.

Inquiries by the City Section into Jovanovski’s background disclosed that Jovanovski should have been declared ineligible to play high school tennis. Jovanovski came to the United States on a student visa and is not a participant in a California Interscholastic Federation-approved student-exchange program.

“He never should have been eligible, but nobody ever questioned it,” Harkness said. “At this point, I’m not going to make a big deal of it. It’s way after the fact and there wouldn’t be anything to gain (by declaring Jovanovski ineligible next season).

“We’re not going to go back and dig things up.”