And it was a beatdown, 6-3 6-1. That's Blake's 4th title of the year, and his first career win over Ljubicic. After rallying from a set down to take out Marat Safin in the semis, looks like James has hit his stride again. Maybe James was getting as irritated with the J-Block as the rest of us during the US Hardcourt Swing. Good to see him in form again.
Here are audio interviews with both of them, and here's a match report.
Match of the day? Agassi, Agassi, Agassi. From what I saw of it, Andrei Pavel was playing some great tennis; and Andre Agassi did well to dig out of 0-4 in the 3rd set. "You want to to be everything you hope it is," said Agassi. "It was perfect." Indeed it was. But can he take out Baghdatis, too? Here's a match review and Agassi's press conference.
Feliciano Lopez finally got his own back against Ivan Ljubicic and logged the upset of the day 6-3 6-3 6-3. LaLo had lost to Ljubicic at the Australian Open, and then again in a brutal 5 set match at Wimbledon. This win takes Lopez to 3-2 over Ivan lifetime. Poor Ivan is still getting no love from...well, anyone. This first round loss won't help.
Interesting factoid: Lopez never faced a breakpoint all match and didn't lose a single point (!) on serve in the 2nd set. Here's a match review.
In other news, 2004 champ Svetlana Kuznetsova escaped an upset in her three set win against a German qualifier; Lindsay Davenport's shoulder is feeling ok; Elena Dementieva got through despite 30+ errors; and Andy Roddick radiated confidence all over the court in his win over Florent Serra. Serra's no pushover, but I'm very eager to see what happens when Roddick comes up against a tougher challenge.
Be sure to check out press conference video and transcripts as well as the daily highlights video at the US Open site. Shame on the US Open for not even including tWorld Number 3 Ivan Ljubicic's interview transcript.
Ljubicic fed up with being tennis' invisible man
"I have to say it's a little bit frustrating," said Ljubicic, winner of two titles this season. "In Gstaad three weeks ago I was the number one seed and when I was doing credentials they asked me if I was a coach or a player.
"Here when I came the woman asked me, 'are you a qualifier or main draw?' Read 'Invisible Man'
Poor Ivan; that's just an absolute shame.
*Photo from www.Ivan-Ljubicic.com
Ljubicic d. Lopez
6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 11-9
Feliciano Lopez has always gotten shite for being too pretty, too weak-minded, and too obsessed with how his hair looks (actually, Federer's maybe more guilty of that; if those 2 were women, they'd have the 2 most lucrative hair endorsements in sports), and he's been having a horrible year. But even though he lost today, he played with remarkable guts and guile.
Perhaps sharing a house with his tough-minded buddy Nadal this week has allowed some of Rafa to rub off on him (Not like THAT, c'mon folks), because F-Lo was tough today. TOUGH. I saw him come back from 2 sets down to take the third 7-5 and then the 2nd at speed, with Ljubicic serving bombs. If only LaLo had protected the early break he got in the 5th! He ended up going out on a double fault, serving 9-10, which was a shame. Even though he loses a ton of ranking points (he's defending an historic quarterfinal run from last year), I hope he takes some positives from this gritty loss. I mean, he saved SEVEN match points--and most of those were SAVED with smart, daring plays, not on Ljubicic errors. Feli, we salute you, and good luck on the hardcourts. Here's a match summary.
This was worst first round match up (in terms of opponent rankings), so congrats to Ivan for sticking it out and winning his 3rd (!) career match at Wimbledon.
Who else had a heartbreaking loss today?
Well today we've got some really interesting match-ups. Mirza v. Dementieva in round one? Ouch. Mirza's power game is suited to grass...and Dementieva...well, I love her, but this could be the upset of the day.
Also, Nalbandian v. Clement, Djokovic v. Robredo, Santoro vs. Berdych, Malisse-Stepanek. What match ups are you looking forward to?
Looks like Ljubicic is about to take out Feli Lopez; he's already up 2 sets on court 13...I'm about to watch the rest of that one. ETA: Wow, Lopez took the 3rd set; he broke Ljubicic to love in the last game of the 3rd set (7-5). Ljubicic seemed to fade after Lopez saved break points in his last 2 games...Lopez is really battling. Let's see if he keeps it up. ETA: Brave effort from Lopez, but not enough.
ETA: Ginepri's crap year continues with his first ever loss to Mardy Fish (in straights sets! Fish had never even won a set off Robby). Davydenko was also dismissed by some Colombian named Falla.
And ouch, what a draw it is. Federer's basically got most of the high-end grass courters in his quarter. Gasquet in the first round, or for all you Gasquet fans (myself included), Gasquet's got Federer. Roger could face Timmy Henman in the second round, and Tommy Haas, who just gave Roger trouble in Halle, in the 4th round. Red hot Mario Ancic and iron-serve Ivo Karlovic are at the bottom of Federer's quarter. Nalbandian or Blake in the semis. Sure, you can't bet against Roger, but wow, this is a tough draw.
Nalbandian's draw looks pretty straightforward until Blake in the quarters, but Poor Andy Roddick (and Marat Safin) are in Lleyton Hewitt's section. Andy Murray's in there, too.
Agassi's in Nadal's portion of the draw, so is Feliciano Lopez, his buddy and Wimbledon housemate who made the quarters last year (first Spaniard in 33 years to do so). F-Lo has been having a dismal year and drawing Ivan Ljubicic in the opening round won't necessarily help matters.
That's good news. On an injury side note, Ivan Ljubicic and Nicholas Kiefer pulled out of this week's Ordina Open in the Netherlands with back and wrist issues. Anyone know if Nalbandian's OK for Wimbledon?
Fun rankings from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Blake Moves To No. 1 (Interview)
Shocked that Safin didn't make the list.
I haven't seen the match yet, but apparently Ljubicic was pissed about Nadal's slow rhythm of play and was pretty surly post-match--he barely shook Rafa's hand and skipped the on-court interview. Ljubicic is always very frank with the press, so it should be an interesting interview when it's up.
Rafa seems to be having a tough couple of weeks. People are poo-pooing his tennis acumen, Vilas is trying to belittle his clay court steak, players are (delusionally) dissing his game (that means YOU, Djokovic), and now this. Poor kid just wants to stay positive.
Anyway, here's the official wrap up.
ETA: Interviews are up: Rafa / Ivan . Ivan's clearly annoyed; Rafa's feelings are clearly hurt by what Ivan said and did (though that is in large part the journalist's fault). Poor baby.
Well, the dream final is set; Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer for the French Open Title. (Ljubicic went down gamely in a third set tiebreaker to Nadal.) Let the speculation begin in earnest!
Ljubicic took out French surprise Julien Benneteau in 3 straightforward sets to reach his first Grand Slam semi. The stoic Croat even shed a few tears of joy at the end, which is the equivalent of Federer crying the Seine.
ESPN has a nice piece on Ivan's long slog to the top ranks of tennis.
Well, it was Ivan Ljubicic over Ramirez-Hidalgo, Rafael Nadal over a game Lleyton Hewitt, an injured Julien Benneteau over an injured Albert Martin, and coachless, agentless Novak Djokovic over a tired Gael Monfils. Do you give Djokovic and Benneteau a shot on Wednesday? I do.
The power of the ATP player blog (and Croatian camaraderie) works again. Ivan Ljubicic and Ivo Karlovic each took out Nicholas Kiefer and Alexander Waske in tight straight sets. This is the first win for Croatia. Here's a match summary.
Lots of Croatian Tennis in the air today; the Independent's got a nice, lengthy article on Ivan Ljubicic that really conveys the harrowing nature of his early life:
"My parents felt our lives were in danger," Ljubicic explained. "Day after day they knew of many people who simply disappeared. It was really dangerous, though I wasn't aware of it as a kid. When I look back on it I realise there were a lot of people I knew personally who I just never saw again. They disappeared."
I know lots of tennis fans who don't care for Ivan, suggesting he's too cold or too boring or too bald. Ridiculous.
I'm guessing this is the year Ivan breaks through on grass; he's definitely got the game for it and now has the confidence. I'll make a bold, early prediction that Ljubicic finishes the grass court season with a better record on the stuff than Roddick.
Now there's a headline you don't see too often in tennis.
From the AFP: Tito's hungry elephants spared
A pair of elephants that were once part of the private zoo of Yugoslav's former dictator Tito have been saved by a food donation from Croatia's top tennis player.
"Ivan Ljubicic and his wife Aida have put a certain amount of money on the account of the national park to help us feed the elephants," Morena Milevoj, spokeswoman of the zoo on Brijuni island, told AFP.
From Reuters: Captain's duties weigh down Ljubicic
Croatia's Davis Cup quarter-final against Argentina next weekend will be Ivan Ljubicic's last as temporary captain.
"It is a lot of work, I have to say," the sixth seed told reporters after reaching the semi-finals of Miami's Nasdaq-100 Open on Wednesday.
"I just announced that this next match is gonna be my last as a captain. The problem is all the work with the media about the match, especially now when it's coming closer, all the talks with the federation representing the players, representing everyone.
"It's not easy, definitely. On a consistent basis, it's little bit too hard," he added after his 7-6 6-4 win over Argentine Agustin Calleri...
Continue reading "Ljubicic to Give Up Davis Cup Captaincy After Tie" »
From The Desert Sun:
Ivan Ljubicic won seven of eight matches to carry Croatia to the 2005 Davis Cup title. Thursday after his loss to Roger Federer, the Croatian hinted at the possibility of a repeat performance.
The Croatians defeated Australia 3-2 in the opening round of the 2006 tournament and the defending champions host Argentina from April 7-9 in the quarterfinals.
"We won it last year. I don't see why we can't do it again," Ljubicic said. "We are a young team, nothing really changed since last year, not many things. We have now Argentina at home. Also you can say that we can win that one, and then we'll see.
"Semis would be potential Australia or Belarus, which is again open match. We really know how strong we are. We have definitely strong doubles and great two singles. Why not?"
An unlikely source for a tennis feature - the UN High Comissioner for Refugees: Ivan Ljubicic's long journey from refugee to tennis stardom: "You simply have to carry on"
It's been a long road from the status of a refugee to joining the elite of the tennis world. But in December, more than 13 years after fleeing the violence of disintegrating Yugoslavia, Ivan Ljubicic led the team in his new home of Croatia to victory in the Davis Cup, the international team tennis championship.
The 26-year-old Ljubicic, currently ranked fifth in the world, had a remarkable 2005. Apart from securing the Davis Cup for his young nation of only 4.5 million people, Ljubicic crowned his individual season by participating in the Masters Cup that grouped the world's best eight players. But it's his history as a refugee makes him unique among the stars of tennis.
Continue reading "Ivan Ljubicic - From Refugee to Tennis Star" »
From the Deccan Herald: Goal is to do better in Grand Slams: Ljubicic
A magnificent 11-1 record in Cup encounters - just short of John McEnroe's all-time best of 12-0 in a season - en route to helping debutant finalists Croatia to a spectacular Davis Cup triumph against Slovakia last month, was the icing on the cake.
Of the last eight years since he turned pro, Ivan Ljubicic will surely feel like putting 2005 away in a safe locker - safe from the prying public and the inevitable media glare...
From The Telegraph: Ljubicic a cut above in the Cup
Ivan Ljubicic is not ashamed to say that he was "crying like a baby" the day Goran Ivanisevic won the Wimbledon title in 2001. It was a defining moment in the history of Croatian sport. So much so that Ljubicic, who was watching the match at a tournament in Gstaad, went out an hour later and beat Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1. "I couldn't lose to anyone that day," remarked the man who now spearheads Croatian tennis.
Should Niki Pilic's team carry off the Davis Cup at the first time of asking in Bratislava next weekend, the country will obviously owe a great debt to the weird and wonderful Ivanisevic, but almost certainly it will be worshipping Ljubicic, whose extraordinary record of nine wins in nine Davis Cup rubbers this year is the reason they are now squaring off against Slovakia for the trophy...
Ljubicic's entire press conference is on the Madrid Masters website here, but here are some of the highlights:
Q. Rafael Nadal said that the crowd support him a lot. Do you think they were a nice crowd to you or a bit aggressive?
A: No, was not nice crowd for me. I mean, is Davis Cup crowd. You know, when they whistle when you miss the first serve, they whistle because you miss the serve, that's not correct. But I expect that. It's nothing wrong with that. I knew how it's going to be... That's absolutely normal. I'm not saying that it would be the same in Croatia, probably not. When Moya is playing in Croatia against Croatian guy, the crowd, it's neutral. But this is a very, very warm country, very warm people. But that's the beauty of the game. That's how it should be.
Ivan Ljubicic's day got off to a strange start. Ten minutes before his match against Vince Spadea was scheduled to begin he walked into the locker room to take a quick shower and opened his locker only to find French tennis player Michael Llodra squeezed in there staring back at him...naked!
From Ljubicic: "He said to me 'I'm trying to get positive energy from you. You're winning a lot of matches this year.' I mean, he is weird guy. Just imagine that he's actually father. It's just, it's not easy to get in that locker, I'm telling you. He is not small guy. Very flexible. Very, very flexible. Naked. "
The unusual match preparation didn't hurt either one of them. Llodra and Clement went out and defeated the Bryan brothers in straight sets and Ljubicic downed Spadea 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3) so perhaps everyone will be trying this sort of thing before matches. Pity the poor locker room attendants.
And it appears that losing to Roger Federer in three finals this year has done Ljubicic's game some good. "I felt like I raised my game in the end, which is - I'm pleased, because it's not always easy to do that. That's what Roger always does with me so...something that I learned from him."
