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2/2/09 4:05 AM | Ricky Dimon
This week's relatively small tournaments have major shoes to fill after a memorable Australian Open. Marin Cilic leads a talented crop of players into Croatia's PBZ Zagreb Indoors.
While the rest of the tennis world is still buzzing about the Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer Australian Open final--not to mention the Nadal vs. Fernando Verdasco semifinal--plenty of the game's notable players will be taking their talents to Chile, South Africa, and Croatia this week.
As one would expect, there's a distinct Croatian flavor to the draw of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors. Marin Cilic is the country's best hope for a title as the No. 2 seed and surely the odds-on favorite to win the tournament. The 20-year-old Croat won a title in Chennai to begin his 2009 campaign and he reached the fourth round in Melbourne before falling to Juan Martin Del Potro. Cilic, however, has a tough opening match on his hands with veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement, so he'll have to come out hot right from the start of the week.
Ivan Ljubicic will hoping to treat the fans to a second straight run to the Zagreb title match. As the No. 1 seed last year, Ljubicic was stunned in the final by little-known Sergiy Stakhovsky. The remainder of Ljubcic's season was marked by injuries, but he played an encouraging match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round of the Australian Open, going down in an extremely tight four-setter.
Stakhovsky, meanwhile, is back in the draw and once again unseeded. He will meet a qualifier in round one and could get another Croat, 6'10'' Ivo Karlovic, in the second round. It's not a perfect draw for Stakhovsky, but Karlovic has been in dismal form ever since reaching the semifinals of last summer's Masters Series Cincinnati.
Roko Karanusic and No. 4 seed Mario Ancic are the other two non-wildcard Croats in the field. Karanusic lost to Nadal in the second round of the Aussie Open while Mario Ancic won two matches--including a five-setter over Karlovic--before falling to Gilles Simon.
But don't sleep on Zagreb's top seed, Igor Andreev. The Russian prefers clay courts, but he has been consistently improving his hard-court game, as seen by a fourth-round appearance at last year's U.S. Open, where he was just barely outlasted by Federer in five sets.
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