Ivan Ljubicic to retire next month

This just broke on me news feed.

Sad to hear he is retiring.




PLAYER NEWS
Ljubicic To Retire Next Month
Indian Wells, U.S.A.
by ATP Staff | 07.03.2012
 

© Getty Images
Ivan Ljubicic announced today that he will retire from the ATP World Tour after competing in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in April.

The Croat, who will turn 33 on 19 March, has been ranked as high as No. 3 on the South African Airways ATP Rankings. He also won the Davis Cup for Croatia in 2005, a bronze medal in doubles with Mario Ancic at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 10 career singles titles, the biggest coming at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in 2010 when he beat Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick. 

Ljubicic was also elected to the ATP Player Council, serving six years from 2002-08 (the last two as President) and to the Board of Directors in 2008.  “It’s never an easy decision for any professional athlete to retire,” said Ljubicic. 

“I look forward to the next stage of my life. Tennis has given me so much and I want to continue to stay involved and contribute in some ways.”

Great news!!!

Leader of the group of no-hopers who provided no competition whatsoever to the guy sitting at the top... Was part of one the weakest 3-10 ranking group of tennis history... Could reach only one slam semi in his entire career and couldn't win a masters till 31!!!

I'm actually made to believe all this by some very logical and thought-out statements made in last few days...

A great player and like great players I don't mind when they retire.


A beautiful striker of the ball who will be remembered as actually one of the very few who ran Federer close during Federer's best years.

spuranik wrote:I'm actually made to believe all this by some very logical and thought-out statements made in last few days...

you too have seen the dawning of the age of Aquarius!

Seriously - very sad to lose Ljubicic and Gonzo!

I will miss Baldy. Thanks LK for posting.

I suppose it's true what they say - hair today gone tomorrow

Tenez wrote:A great player and like great players I don't mind when they retire.

A beautiful striker of the ball who will be remembered as actually one of the very few who ran Federer close during Federer's best years.

In all seriousness, Kojak was a fine player although some of here may want us to believe otherwise. As Tenez says here, he ran Fed very close in his best years. Even in their last encounter at Stockholm, he narrowly lost the 1st set in the tie-break and was visibly upset. Fed has to win three tough tie-breaks at Miami in 2006. Mind you, Fed was 92-5 during that year. In fact, 8 of their 16 meetings were in 2005 and 2006. Really shows, why Ljubicic couldn't show something in his CV.

As I said in a previous thread, if available, people should see some of the highlights of ARAG world team cup in 2006-07 when Croatia won the cup. Ljubo's serve was untouchable and he was playing quite some breath-taking tennis. Same with his DC victory over US. He single-handedly took Croatia to finals playing several 5-setters and winning all of them IIRC.

Yes. Ivan was not mobile and fit enough to achieve in slams. That was his real problem, specially with conds slowing down.

In terms of ball striker, better than most top players.

Its unfortunate he had to retire, but all good things do come to end someday, wish LUBO all the best for his 2nd part of life.

Goo luck to him. He played great tennis.

The guy had a wonderful BH and his service action was beautiful. Remember him winning Indian Wells in 2010. I am so glad he was able to post a Masters 1000 victory.

Again I wish we had more players with his shot-making abilities.

farewell and prosper young padowan, respect to the bastion of beautiful backhanders.

Nice BH, shiny head, nice guy, not great mover, FH slightly agricultural...kind of a Todd Martin of the 00s. Always shows the power of a great serve in any era...

Looby was tough.

Enjoyable game, mature guy, his own man, I liked him.

Everyone should shave their heads in tribute to the man

Not consistenly at the top of the rankings - only twice he acheived top 10 (9 and 5 in '05 and '06) and his third best year end performance was actually 17 in 2010. So this stuff about him being the no 3 in Federer's era, a ranking which he achieved only briefly, has often been exaggerated.

Having said that, people forget how good he was in his hot streak from the end of 05 to the middle of 6. Probably should have won a masters at the end of 05 when he was really hot but lost 2 5 set finals in Madrid (when it was at the end of the year) and Paris to Nadal and Berdych. Interestingly, at that time at the end of 2005 R3 was his best slam placing to date and up to and including 2005 he had never had a year in which he won more matches at slams than lost.

In 2006 however he made AO QF, IW QF, Miami F, Monte QF, FO SF. After that he never really approached that level again, apart from briefly in winning at IW in 2010, a richly deserved triumph that he should have had in 05-06.

The Ljubicic of September 05 - June 06 could actually have been #5 in today's rankings in my opinion. He was playing some good tennis for sure.

When will Federer retire?

Good player, nice guy. Not really my cup of tea in terms of playing style. Not very mobile. But the backhand and serve were definetly things of beauty. He had a much better one hander especially on the return than fed. But I stand by my position a weak top 5 player a good top 10-20 type of guy. Very sad about him and Gonzo. But I love Gonzo's game much more.

jersey wrote:When will Federer retire?

not before Nole who has inflicted too many self-injuries.

Allez

Ljubicic has very good H2Hs versus most top players of his generation:

v Nalbandian leads 5/4
v Davydenko 4 all
v Blake leads 4/2
v Safin 2 all
v Gonzalez 4 all

Has beaten Federer 3 times (not many can claim that)
Nadal twice including once at 31
Djoko Twice including once at 31
Murray thrice (3/4 Murray over all)

He can retire a proud man!

Great guy, pity he had to wait until 2010 at the age of 31 to get his first Masters but I suppose that was logical.

bogbrush wrote:Great guy, pity he had to wait until 2010 at the age of 31 to get his first Masters but I suppose that was logical.

We could do with a type of 'Gone Fishing' emoticon I reckon.