INDIAN WELLS, CALIF. — Jelena Jankovic hails from Serbia, but is building a 20,000-square-foot home in San Diego. Ivan Ljubicic comes from Croatia, but says that nowhere suits his game better than the warm and breezy confines of Southern California.
Maybe someone in the State Department can offer them citizenship because both showed in their stellar runs to the BNP Paribas Open titles that they would make fine additions to the U.S. Davis and Fed Cup teams.
Former No. 3 Ljubicic played the tournament of his life in taking down three former Slam champs — Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick — to win his first Masters Series shield. Former No. 1 Jankovic already had Premier crowns in her large pocket, but after a rickety ’09 and slow start to this season, she proved that when she’s in a good motivational space and is getting after the ball, she still has Slam winning potential.
At the start of the tournament, Jankovic’s face was filled with frowns, as she complained of a lack of form, motivation and said that the tour was grinding her into near submission. But some strong whiffs of the desert air gave her new life, as did the thought of her newest off-court project: the more-than-spacious house she’s building in Rancho Santa Fe (complete with a pool, 10-car garage, gym, tennis court and state-of-the-art theater). She says she plans to move in by year’s end.
“That’s what makes me happy,” she said. “Sometimes I get down on myself and I see the dream home and it shows me that I’ve done a really good job to be able to have the money to build this house. I don’t know why I’m getting upset about losing matches. It isn’t like I’m really sick, and it isn’t going to take away that I was No. 1 or what I’ve done in my career.”
Jankovic promised not to beat herself up during the tournament, and her famous smile returned as she won her first Indian Wells title with a rapid and impressive 6-2, 6-4 defeat of new world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki in the final.
When the draw came out, it sure looked like Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova would have something major to say about the proceedings. Top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 3 Victoria Azarenka and No. 4 Elena Dementieva were thought to be major factors, too. So much for predicting matches on paper. A rusty Henin went down erratically to Gisela Dulko; Sharapova fell to Jie Zheng and the withdrew from in Miami with a bone bruise on her right elbow that will likely keep her out until mid April. The big Russian Alisa Kleybanova took out Clijsters 6-4 1-6 7-6. Thhe serve-and-volleying Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez unearthed Azarenka 7-6 6-2, and the tricky Pole Agnieszka Radwanska tripped up Dementieva.
“A lot of people expect the top players to do well, but you see it more and more that in the early rounds it just becomes a lot tougher,” said ’09 U.S. Open champ Clijsters.
After nearly going down to Sarah Errani in the second round (where she was two points from defeat), Jankovic and her part-time coach Chip Brooks hit the practice courts determined to cut down on her errors and to regain the level of concentration that once made her a feared player. Mission accomplished, as she immediately hit her stride, yanking around the court a solid group of competitors, included Shahar Peer, Kleybanova and then Sam Stosur in the semis.
Wozniacki looked quite sure of herself, too, after a fine tournament that included impressive wins over Nadia Petrova, Zheng and Radwanska. But in the final, the 19-year-old Dane looked no more than a paper No. 2, as she was clearly outplayed by Jankovic for the fourth time. She didn’t appear to have the weapons, the know-how or the grit to subdue the searing Serbian. Wozniacki has been extremely consistent since the start of ’09, reaching nine finals, but she’s only won three and none of them had near the significance of Indian Wells.
For her part, Jankovic has won two Premier titles in eight months, Cincinnati and now Indian Wells, has a rock solid base, is willing to fight when her head is in the right place, and has continued to work diligently on the three weaker parts of her game: her serve, forehand and net play.
She believed that, despite her lower ranking, she was the better player than her foe coming into the final and there was no question about that during the contest. She’s just as fast as Wozniacki is, is happy to trade laser shots from the backhand side, had no concerns over the Dane’s unimpressive forehand and was consistently willing to attack the short ball.
It was Jankovic who moved further inside the court. It was Jankovic who leapt into short balls. It was Jankovic who played the sturdier defense and adeptly moved her serve around. She pocketed the victory when she took a Wozniacki looper out of the air and tore it down the line with her hatchet-like backhand, and then saw the teen net a forehand return.
Jankovic is back to No. 8 in the rankings — not exactly where a former No. 1 wants to be, but she certainly feels better than she did last summer, when she came into the U.S. Open hoping to better her final-round appearance from ’09 and was stunned in the second round by Yaroslava Shvedova.
If she can find a way to keep consistently fresh, she’ll have an opportunity to make significant showings at the majors, because as the world found out at Indian Wells, when the former Slam champs went down early, the only woman who has played consistently well at the majors over the past 15 months has been No. 1 Serena Williams. Every other player of note is in mix, and that includes Jankovic.
“This is the fifth biggest tournament that we have on the tour, so I must have done something right here,” Jankovic said. “The ranking doesn’t really matter to me. I’m looking to play some good tennis and really do the right things. And if I’m doing that, I’ll be winning big titles and the ranking will come on its own.”
Ljubicic turned 31 during the tournament and he’s in a very happy place. He loves being a husband and a father to his 16-month-old Leonardo, who travels with him and his wife, Aida. He’s become obsessed with his fitness and always takes two hotel rooms so he can get his rest. But Leonardo frequently makes his day.
“I want him around,” he said. “When I come back after a match and get to play with him, everything else is unimportant.”
The Croat will likely never reach No. 3 again, which he did back in ’06, but if not for the existence of his close friend Roger Federer, he may even have spent a brief period at No. 1. That may be a bit of stretch, but imagine the boost of confidence he would have gotten had he been able to take out the Swiss just once in ’05-’06, when Federer edged him eight times (four of which were finals).
“I always enjoyed playing him, even though I lost many times,” he said. “I always felt like I was a better player right after finishing the match against him. He really raises the level of everybody else.”
Ljubicic has had to put his nose to the grindstone to remain competitive, and has changed his workout routine (less weight lifting and more balance and prevention work), as well as adding more practice hours. When he turned pro in ’97, he felt like he was in every match despite his own shortcomings. Thirteen years later, he’s had to quickly plug up the holes.
“The game has become more physical. Guys are faster. They’re hitting harder and there are no weaknesses from the top players,” he said. “When I was coming up, I’d play a Marc Rosset or a Yevgeny Kafelnikov and they would always have a weakness, and when you’re in trouble, you could go there and save yourself. You could play with anyone even if they are among the best. Now they’re all so complete. You have to be better than them.”
Ljubicic did everything he was called on to do in the desert: play creatively and decisively in taking down Djokovic and Juan Monaco; intelligently and authoritatively and elbowing his way past Nadal and Roddick 7-6(3), 7-6(5). He kept cool during the entire event, more than can be said for legends Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi during the Hit for Haiti fundraiser, which was supposed to be a feel-good event and turned into a spitball-fest between two men who relived their old rivalry with their mouths rather than their rackets.
Federer also acted like a boy who just lost a schoolyard fight when gave up three match points and fell 5-7, 7-5 7-6(4) to Marcos Baghdatis for the first time. Federer didn’t lavish any praise on Baghdatis and refused to discuss the tiebreaker.
“I should never be in a breaker,” he barked.” So why analyze the breaker? That’s the way I analyze tennis.”
After Ljubicic played an “absolutely perfect” tiebreaker to upset defending champ Nadal 3-6 6-4 7-6(1), the Spaniard was none too thrilled either.
“That was an accident today,” he said. “I was more nervous than passive [in the tiebreaker]. Because I never had to arrive to this tiebreak…I played bad.”
Ljubicic is no stranger to great play in SoCal, having led Croatia to an upset of the U.S. Davis Cup team (Roddick, Andre Agassi and the Bryan Bros.) in Carson in ’05. Then, as at Indian Wells, he trotted a big and varied serve, the ability to flatten out balls down the line off the ground, and a competent volley. But now he’s a more schooled player, a more careful player, man who knows how to seize the moments.
Roddick also had a terrific tournament in reaching his first Masters Series final since ’06, playing steady and being advantageous in wins over Jurgen Melzer, Tommy Robredo and Robin Soderling. He was awfully pleased to be getting more returns into play, a part of his game he’s been diligently working on, but against Ljubicic, he watched the yellow ball turn as bright as the sun as it exploded past him.
“He served great,” Roddick said. “The last two days was an exhibition in how-to on serving big points.”
Ljubicic no longer has designs on the top spot, and says that the victory won’t get into his head and give him false hope that he can become a dominant player in his 30s. But he snared his first Masters Series crown and is a contender again and with the arduous road that he took back to success, that’s good enough.
“I have to be realistic,” he said. “I know how difficult it is to beat me and I’m going to give a hard time to everybody who is going to be on the other side of the net. That’s the only thing I can promise at the moment.”
