For the twentieth time in his career, Ivan Ljubicic was ousted before the third round of a Grand Slam. The 22nd ranked player in the world, Ljubicic has only made it past the second round of a Grand Slam twice in his whole career, and has never made it past the third round in these two instances. With his four-set, 6-7 4-6 7-6 2-6 loss to 19-year-old Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the second round of the Australian Open Wednesday, Ljubicic continued his frustrating pattern of Grand Slam disappointments.
Considering his great success in other tournaments, Ljubicic's lack of success in the Grand Slams is mind-boggling. This summer, in the tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana, Ljubicic made a great run, defeating the crafty Frenchman, Sebastian Grosjean, in the semifinals and just barely losing to Andy Roddick, the second ranked player in the world, in the final after obtaining several match points. Ivan was playing phenomenally. Then he went to the US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York and immediately lost to 58th ranked Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea.
Three months ago, Ivan played great tennis in the Madrid Tennis Masters Series, defeating Rainer Schuettler, Tim Henman, and gutting out a victory over the hard-hitting Joachim Johansson before losing to the scrappy Argentine David Nalbandian in the semifinal. This was a tournament to which only the top players in the world are invited - much like a Grand Slam. Just a week ago in the tournament in Doha, Qatar, Ljubicic defeated the promising young Spaniard Rafael Nadal and his veteran compatriot Albert Costa, only bowing out to the number one player in the world, Roger Federer, in the final.
Coming into the 2005 Australian Open, Ivan Ljubicic was playing magnificent tennis. It showed in the first round of the tournament, in which he handily defeated the hard-working Peruvian, Luis Horna, by a lopsided score of 6-4 6-3 6-3. Ljubicic confidently stated after the game that he "destroyed" his opponent from the baseline and described his play as "excellent."
However, in the second round of the tournament, Ljubicic failed to come through. Playing against Baghdatis, the talented but unpolished Cypriot baseliner who is ranked just 155th in the world, Ljubicic was defeated in four sets. Ivan had only 42 winners compared to 46 unforced errors, while Baghdatis played brilliantly, striking 72 winners and only hitting 33 unforced errors. Ljubicic converted on only one of eight break points.
Did Ljubicic just have an off-day? Everybody should be entitled to play poorly once in a while. Baghdatis did play extremely well, and even if Ivan had played as well as he had been in the past few months, the match would have been a battle. However, Ljubicic has set an astounding and incomprehensible pattern of losing early in Grand Slams to players worse than he is. There is absolutely no reason that Ljubicic should lose time and time again before the third round of a Grand Slam, especially when he is playing some of the best tennis of his life in all of the other tournaments.
As a fan of Croatian tennis and of Ivan Ljubicic, I pray that it is just a coincidence that Ivan fails to succeed in the Grand Slams of tennis. I pray that one of these days, he will show the world on the grandest stage what a talented player he actually is. I pray that he reaches the third, or even the fourth round (gasp!) of a major this year. Every knowledgeable tennis fan knows he is more than capable of doing this and much more.
Until then, I, along with the rest of his fans, will wait for Croatia's best and highest-ranked player to come through and finally play well at a major. It makes no sense why he can defeat Rainer Schuettler, Rafael Nadal, Sebastian Grosjean, and Tim Henman in regular tournaments and then go lose to 19-year-old Marcos Baghdatis in the second round of the 2005 Australian Open.
Until then, I will watch and wait patiently and eagerly for Ivan Ljubicic to win when it counts the most. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later.