Ljubicic’s farewell
Ivan Ljubicic [41] lost today his last professional match to his compatriot Ivan Dodig, 0-6 3-6 at Monte Carlo (the opening match of the tournament)… The 33-year-old Croatian player announced retirement a few weeks ago before Indian Wells ’12 – a tournament in which he’d celebrated the biggest individual success in his tennis life, capturing the title in 2010 after beating Djokovic and Nadal en route to the final! “It’s never an easy decision for any professional athlete to retire,” said Ljubicic. “I look forward to the next stage of my life. Tennis has given me so much and I want to continue to stay involved and contribute in some ways.” Ljubo has belonged to the “all-serve players” group. Already in his early days on tour he was known as one of the biggest servers, a player of this type is obviously often involved in tight sets and tight matches. He was initially losing the vast majority of them, needless to say the Croat was beaten six times squandering a match point (20 m.p.’s in total!) in span between the Australian swings 2002-03. He needed to improve his backhand and the net-play to avoid losing dramatic matches so often. The best period in his career came after the Olympic games in Athens (2004) where along with Mario Ancic he got the bronze medal in doubles followed up with winning a Davis Cup play-off tie against Belgium which shifted Croatia to the World Group. In 2005 Ljubicic noticed one of the most memorable Davis Cup years ever for a player as he won 7 consecutive vital rubbers in singles and 4 in doubles (partnering Ancic) becoming the father figure of an amazing success (Croatia beat Slovakia 3-2 in the final). In the meantime he reached back-to-back ‘1000’ finals (Madrid, Paris) losing in five sets on both occasions. After solid thirteen years in the Top 100, he will be definitely missed…
Ivan Ljubicic in numbers (singles):
10 titles (3 Challengers), 14 finals (2 CH):
Titles:
99 – Besancon
01 – Lyon (60)
05 – Metz (153), Vienna (154), Zagreb
06 – Chennai (159), Zagreb (161), Vienna (177)
07 – Doha (180), s’Hertogenbosch (193)
08 – East London
09 – Lyon (244)
10 – Indian Wells (251)
Finals:
04 – Doha; 05 – Doha, Marseille, Rotterdam, Dubai, Madrid, Paris; 06 – Miami, Bangkok; 07 – Zagreb, Rotterdam; 08 – Zagreb; 10 – Montpellier; 11 – Metz
Best Grand Slam results:
Australian Open (2006 – quarter-final)
Roland Garros (2006 – semifinal)
He’s got an Olympic medal: bronze in Athens (doubles, 2004)
He was the most important member of the winning team at the Davis Cup 2005 and the World Team Cup 2006
Highest ranking: 3 (01.05.2006)
Ranking in years 1996-2011:
573 – 287 – 293 – 77 – 91 – 39 – 49 – 42 – 22 – 9 – 5 – 18 – 44 – 24 – 17 – 30.
Win/loss record:
main level: 429/296 (.591)
all levels: 522/351 (.597)
Detailed stats (main level only):
291 tournaments (years 1996-2012)
5-setters: 10-18 (.357)
Tie-breaks: 227-209 (.520)
– deciding 3rd set tie-breaks: 33-20 (.622)
m.p. matches: 11-15 (.423)
Longest winning streak: 16 [2005]
Longest losing streak: 4 [several times]
Longest win: 4 hours, 37 min. Mardy Fish 6-2, 6-7, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 – Roland Garros 2010
Longest defeat: 4 hours, 47 min. Marcos Ondruska 6-2, 6-2, 5-7, 6-7, 8-10 – Roland Garros 2001
Longest tie-break won: Chris Woodruff 6-3, 7-6(15) – Indianapolis 2001
Longest tie-break lost: Alex Corretja 6-7(12), 4-6 – Kitzbuhel 2000
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Au revoir. A celui qui se definisé lui-même comme “Le moins connu des n°3 mondial” 🙂
“the least known of world number three”
I was expecting to read the most entertain matches you saw from Ljubo!!!
Sorry that I disappointed you 😉