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2/29/08 1:34 AM | David Cox
The Zagreb tournament director will be rather relieved at the result of this one as Ljubicic (the last remaining seed in the draw) made rather heavy weather of defeating the Russian Teimuraz Gabashvilli, coming through in the end, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3. This sets up a dream semi-final for local fans, Ljubicic against Mario Ancic
Ljubicic had a near-perfect start, winning the first 10 points and racing to a 4-0 lead. Gabashvilli began to find his serving rhythm but by then the set was already over. The Croatian missed chances to gain a complete strangehold on the match at the start of the second and more break points went begging at 5-5. He was made to pay in the tiebreak, Gabashvilli took a 4-1 lead before getting tight but just managed to hold on to nick it 7-5.
Having not faced a break point in the first two sets, Ljubicic was under pressure on serve for the first time at the start of the third, finding himself staring at 2 break points at 2-2. However he held firm, before breaking to take a 4-2 lead in the next game (a poor miss from Gabashvilli) and that was all the top seed required.
As Ljubicic said afterwards, a lot came down to those points at the start of the 3rd; “The key moments were in the third set: I saved two break points at 2-2 and broke him in the next game.”
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