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3/14/10 2:05 AM | James Munoz
Youth is not served as the veteran and former top 5 player, Ljubicic advances in straight sets. The match was great to see as the young American showed great promise, but simply was not enough to overcome the Croat.
17 year old American hopeful Ryan Harrison matched up with veteran Ivan Ljubicic on court 4 in front of a capacity crowd Saturday afternoon. The pro-American crowd tried their best to get behind the young American and he did his best to please them. Unfortunately for them, Ljubicic was far too experienced to let either the crowd or opponent get the better of him.
Harrison has great technique and could one day become a great player, but his youth showed in the first set. Ever the veteran, Ljubicic looked rusty in the warmup and turned it on from the first point of the match. The pace and weight of shot of the Croat forced many an error from the American. The first set started perfectly in Ljubicic’s favor as he broke his opponent to start the match.
Known as one of the greatest servers in the game, Ljubicic did not disappoint in the opening set. Mixing depth, pace and height changes, Ljubicic flustered his opponent and had numerous easy points on first serves. The only scare he would face in the opening set was serving 2-1, when he came out of a 15-40 hole. Two aces in the next three points and it was cruise control from there. The tall Croat would serve 70% first serve and win 61% of the points en route to taking the opening set 6-2 in 30 minutes.
The second set would also begin with a break from Ljubicic as he went up 3-1. The consistent play, particularly on the serve would not repeat itself in the second set though. Ljubicic served a mere 47% first serve percentage and seemed to tire. No longer getting the weight of shot on serve or from the ground, the Croat began to take his foot off the peddle.
Up a break and 5-3 in the match, Ljubicic played a loose game that allowed the crowd and Harrison back in the match. Harrison started to attack Ljubicic’s backhand by coming into the net and won his serve to bring the match to 5-4. In the next game, some sloppy serving by Ljubicic allowed Harrison to get the break and even the match at 5 games all. The crowd then began to cheer louder than ever and reached its peak as Harrison held for a 6-5 lead.
With the crowd against him and his opponent gaining confidence, Ljubicic resorted to some of his old weapons by concentrating on 1st serves and ending the points quickly at the net. After basically avoiding the net for most of the match, Ivan would come in and take the game with ease heading into the tiebreaker. In the breaker, it was more of the same as Ljubicic won at the net 7-2.
Next up for Ljubicic is Argentinean Brian Dabul.
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