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  • Ljubicic heads field in Zagreb

    2/26/08 2:01 AM | David Cox
    - 2006 champion Ivan Ljubicic leads the field this week in Zagreb. The top seed faces the talented young Latvian Ernests Gulbis in rd1, a potentially tricky encounter. Ljubicic has been far from his best this year (outplayed by Berdych at this stage in Rotterdam) but should have too much for Gulbis who’s been struggling recently, losing to Macedonia’s number 1 in 5 sets in the Davis Cup !!

    Giant-killer Andreas Seppi (he beat Hewitt and Nadal in Rotterdam !) is the other seed in Ljubicic’s section, but the big hitting Russian Gabashvilli is a potential banana skin for him in rd2

    He set the home crowd alight with his tennis last week, now Robin Haase faces a rematch with Michael Berrer in rd1. Haase dominated their last 16 encounter in Rotterdam but couldn’t put the German away, Berrer digging in and just getting everything back. Eventually the depth of Haase’s hitting saw him through 6-3 in the 3rd and you’d think a similar result is likely this week on a faster surface

    The winner of that one should face 3rd seed Gilles Simon, another beneficiary of the Rotterdam draw opening up so kindly. A surprise semi-finalist, nerves got to him and Simon had a bit of a shocker against Robin Soderling but providing his timing has returned Simon should overcome the Czech qualifier Pavel Cervenak who has a decent all-court style but his backhand isn’t top 100 quality

    In the bottom half, a few matches have already been played, the big shock being 4th seed Fabrice Santoro’s exit. The veteran retired at 6-3, 2-0 down against Olivier Rochus, a match full of delicate angles and touch shots. 8th seed Janko Tipsarevic looked one to watch, extremely impressive in a 6-3, 6-1 win over Mischa Zverev, firing 11 aces along the way. He’s scheduled for a last 8 meeting with Ivo Karlovic, though the big Croat could have to watch out for Viktor Troicki in rd1. Another talented young Serb, Troicki is a handful indoors, he beat Tursunov in the Davis Cup and pushed Davydenko to 5 sets

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