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| Birth Name(s) : Ivan Ljubicic |
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Full Ivan Ljubicic Biography
Ivan Ljubičić (, born March 19, 1979) is a Croatian tennis player. His career-high ATP Entry ranking was No. 3, and his current Entry list ranking is No. 14 (as of October 2007).
Ljubičić entered professional tennis in 1998, and played in the final of the ATP Challenger in Zagreb, where he lost to Alberto Berasategui. He played a number of smaller tournaments the same year, but had little success and finished the year as #293.
In 1999, his luck turned, and he won two Futures tournaments, as well as a Challenger in Besançon, France. He won another two victories in the qualifications for the Casablanca Tour event, where he was defeated by Juan Carlos Ferrero. He then entered the Super 9 tournament in Monte Carlo (today's Monte Carlo Masters) where he reached the third round after an amazing run where he defeated Andrei Medvedev and Yevgeni Kafelnikov. He also played in the Croatia Open in Umag where he was eliminated only in the semifinal by Magnus Norman. He finished the year as #77.
The year 2002 he was in two semifinals (Rotterdam, Gstaad) and four quarterfinals (Adelaide, Dubai, Umag, Tashkent) on the ATP Tour, and it the first time he passed the first round on a Grand Slam, when he reached the 3rd round of Australian Open where he was stopped by Wayne Ferreira in five sets. He ended the year as #49, and also no. 2 in the number of aces behind Wayne Arthurs.
In 2003, he reached the semifinals of Milan, Dubai, Bangkok and Basel, and also the 3rd round of Monte Carlo Masters and the quarterfinals in Rome Masters. He lost in the second round in the U.S Open to Andy Roddick who would then go on to become the champion that year. The score was 6-3,6-7,6-3, 7-6. After the match, he went on to say that if the match had been played anywhere else, he would have won. He also stated that no one in the locker room liked the American.
Ljubičić has also been the top player of the Croatian Davis Cup team since the departure of Goran Ivanišević. In Davis Cup 2005, the Croatian team defeated the United States in the first round played in March 2005. Ljubičić defeated Andre Agassi convincingly in straight sets in his first singles match. He then teamed with Mario Ančić to defeat the Bryan Brothers, then the world's second-ranked doubles team. He finally clinched victory for his country, defeating America's number one player and former world number one Andy Roddick in five sets. In the July quarterfinal, Ljubičić again won his singles games against Romania's Victor Hanescu as well as Andrei Pavel, and then together with Ančić defeated the Pavel-Trifu duo in five sets. In the semifinal held in September against the Russian team, Ljubičić defeated Mikhail Youzhny in five sets, together with Ančić defeated Igor Andreev and Dmitry Tursunov in another five-set game, and finally defeated Nikolay Davydenko to secure victory for Croatia. Then in the finals Ljubičić defeated Karol Kučera and also paired with Mario Ančić to help secure Croatia's first Davis Cup victory.
Prior to the Australian Open, Ljubičić played a tournament in Chennai, seeded 1 he was expected to do well on the hardcourts there. Playing well he reached the final and defeated Spaniard Carlos Moyà 7-6, 6-2. It proved to be a great preparation for the Australian Open.
After the Australian Open he played at the Zagreb Indoor Open, which is played on carpet, a surface typically favoured by Ljubičić. He reached the final once more and subsequently defeated Stefan Koubek 6-3, 6-4 in the final.
At the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, Ljubičić had a tough first round opponent in '05 quarterfinalist Feliciano Lopez. He won 11-9 in the fifth. He then defeated Justin Gimelstob before losing in the third round to Dmitry Tursunov after being up two sets to none.
At the US Open, Ljubičić was drawn against Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the First Round, as he had been at Wimbledon. However, Lopez exacted revenge for his almost five-hour long defeat at Wimbledon by annihilating the third seed 6-3 6-3 6-3.
At Rotterdam, he made it to the final, where, exhausted and tired, he suffered a 6-2, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Mikhail Youzhny.
At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Ljubičić lost to Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals 7-6(7), 7-6(8).
In september just one day before start of Davis Cup tie against Great Britain , Ivan discovered a blood in his urine . After tests it was announced that he have 2 small stones in the kidney. He is scheduled to take a break for couple of weeks.
Grand Slam Win-Loss0-00-00-01-10-41-44-44-42-43-411-46-4N/A32-33Indian Wells MastersAAAAAA1RA1R4RQFQF0 / 58-5Miami MastersAAAA1RQF2R2R3R4RFSF0 / 817-8Monte Carlo MastersAAA2RA1R1R3R3R1RQF3R0 / 810-8Rome MastersAAAAA1R3RQF2R3R1R2R0 / 78-7Hamburg MastersAAAAAA1R1RSF2R2R3R0 / 67-6Canada MastersAAAAA2R1R1R2R1R3R1R0 / 74-7Cincinnati MastersAAA2RAQF2R2R2R1RQF2R0 / 811-8Madrid MastersAAAAAA3R1RSFF2R2R0 / 610-6Paris MastersAAAAA2R2RA2RFA
N/AN/A
- A = did not participate in the tournament
- SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played
- 1 - If Davis Cup (23-12) participations are included, his overall win-loss record stands at 318-207. |
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