Ljubicic Lone ‘Star’ at ATP Zagreb

February 24th, 2008

Ljubicic Lone ‘Star’ at ATP Zagreb

by Richard Vach

Ivan Ljubicic returns to the PBZ Zagreb Indoors to try and best his effort in 2007 when, as the top seed, he was upset by No. 2-seeded Marcos Baghdatis in the three-set final.

Ljubicic is once again the top seed, but Baghdatis and other name players failed to show, with no Top 20-ranked competitors in attendance.

After failing to surpass the third round at any Grand Slam in 2007, Ljubicic resides outside the Top 20 after ranking No. 3 in 2006.

Also seeded in Zagreb are Croat “Dr.” Ivo Karlovic, Gilles Simon and Fabrice “The Magician” Santoro of France, Croat Marin Cilic, Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, Italian Andreas Seppi, and Serb Janko Tipsarevic.

Resurgent Croat Mario “Baby Goran” Ancic is unseeded, and opens against the No. 6-seeded Mahut.

Karlovic starts against a qualifier, with a potential second-round meeting against this weekend’s Rotterdam finalist Michael Llodra.

Wildcards for the event went to Croatian future household names Lovro Zovko, Franko Skugor, and Roko Karanusic.

Also Check Out:
Electronic Line-calling Malfunction Costs Ljubicic at Indian Wells Tennis
The 2007 Davis Cup Draw, Can Ljubicic and Croatia do it Again?
Nalbandian Without a Coach, Gilbert Without $20
Croatia Will Put Roddick, Blake(?) on Clay in Davis Cup Encounter
Year End Bust

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 12:15 am and is filed under Tennis.

11 Comments for “Ljubicic Lone ‘Star’ at ATP Zagreb”

Alaine Says:

Somebody please answer, maybe post it to Wikipedia too. WHY does Ivo Karlovic have the nickname “Doctor”?

Thanks for taking the time

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 6:41 am

Von Says:

I think he has a Ph.D. degree.

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 8:13 am

Kirin Says:

Dont know yet why. But I just want to say I like the site and the posts. I just added to my RSS feed. Will be coming back for more.
Good job -

Kirin

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

TD Says:

Other than in his small home country Ljubicic was never a true tennis star.

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

tennismonger Says:

C’mon, tennis fans, you musn’t visit this site often enough! Or maybe you do but you don’t get out to see goofy movies often enough. It’s Dr. ‘Ivo’, as in ‘Dr. Evil,’ from that silly Austin Powers movie w/Mike Myers. That’s it.

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 6:38 pm

Alaine Says:

Thanks tennismonger (And you’re quite right, I don’t get out to goofy movies often enough). But am I to understand Karlovic is “Dr. Ivo” only because of the phonetic similarity(?) of ‘Evil’ and ‘Ivo’? That’s a major stretch even by the whimsical standards of contemporary popular culture.

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

Von Says:

tennismonger:
“C’mon, tennis fans, you musn’t visit this site often enough!”

Tell me you’re kidding. Seriously though, I heard one of the commentators saying that he has a PhD., and his wife is also a professional. If you’re correct, then I need to have my hearing checked, or the commentator needs to get his facts correct.

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 7:23 pm

tennismonger Says:

OK, just as I have attempted to enlighten, I too may have been enlightened as well.

It would not surprise me at all if Ivo indeed has a PhD (at the risk of igniting another thread/argument it’s my perception that Europeans athletes take their studies far more seriously than their American counterparts) which would make it a sort of play on words/nickname w/a cultural reference thrown in.

Let’s do some digging & get to the bottom of this!

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

Von Says:

“Let’s do some digging & get to the bottom of this!”

OK, you do the digging and i’ll wait for the results.

Posted February 24th, 2008 at 11:01 pm

tennismonger Says:

I’ve dug all I’m gonna dig & it would appear that like Dr. J & Dr. Dre, Ivo is a Dr. in name only…

Posted February 25th, 2008 at 12:53 am

Von Says:

Good for you. I’ll have my hearing checked or I should send an email to that commentator, however, I am now wondering who made this comment. Now my mind is going.

Posted February 25th, 2008 at 1:37 am