57 Facts About Ivan Ljubicic

Ivan Ljubicic is a Croatian former professional tennis player.

Ivan Ljubicic reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals world No 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006.

Since retiring, Ljubicic has coached ATP top 3 players Milos Raonic and Roger Federer.

Ivan Ljubicic was credited with Federer's improved backhand, especially evident on high shots, and tactical change of taking shots much earlier, taking more time, pace, and rhythm off his opponents at the same time making his overall game more offensive.

Ivan Ljubicic reached consecutive indoor Masters finals in 2005 at Madrid and Paris, losing both of them in 5 sets.

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Ivan Ljubicic helped Croatia win the 2005 Davis Cup, their first ever title, where they triumphed over the Slovakian Davis Cup team in the final.

Ivan Ljubicic served as the ATP Players' Council president and in 2008 became one of the few active players to serve on the ATP Board of Directors.

Ivan Ljubicic won his first Masters title in 2010, and retired in 2012 at the Monte-Carlo Masters.

Ivan Ljubicic was born in Banja Luka, at the time SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia to a Bosnian Croat father, Marko, and a Bosniak mother, Hazira.

Ivan Ljubicic started playing tennis as a child in 1988, and he soon won his first local awards as a junior.

Ivan Ljubicic decided to play for Croatia and in 1995 won his first junior championship, becoming the Croatian under-16 champion.

Ivan Ljubicic joined the tennis club Mladost and played in more and more junior ITF tournaments.

Ivan Ljubicic reached the Australian Open junior semifinal in 1997 and won the Eddie Herr tournament, which made him the No 2 junior in the world.

Ivan Ljubicic's successes continued: quarterfinals of the junior French Open, and first steps of entering professional tennis.

Ivan Ljubicic turned professional in 1998 and played in the final of the ATP Challenger in Zagreb, where he lost to former French Open finalist Alberto Berasategui.

Ivan Ljubicic played a number of smaller tournaments the same year, but had little success and finished the year ranked No 293.

Ivan Ljubicic won two more victories in the qualifications for the Casablanca Tour event, where he was defeated by Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Ivan Ljubicic then entered the Super 9 tournament in Monte Carlo, where he reached the third round after an amazing run in which he defeated Andrei Medvedev and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Ivan Ljubicic played in the Croatia Open in Umag, where he was eliminated in the semifinal by Magnus Norman.

Ivan Ljubicic played in the third round of the Olympic tournament.

Ivan Ljubicic won his first ATP singles title at Lyon in 2001, after defeating Gustavo Kuerten, Gaston Gaudio, Marat Safin, and Younes El Aynaoui.

Ivan Ljubicic ended the year ranked No 49, and No 2 in the number of aces, behind Wayne Arthurs.

Ivan Ljubicic reached the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters and the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters.

Ivan Ljubicic lost in the second round in the USOpen to Andy Roddick, who would then go on to become the champion that year.

Ivan Ljubicic reached the quarterfinals at Basel and the Miami Masters.

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In 2005, Ivan Ljubicic won two ATP titles and was the runner-up at another six, losing to world No 1 Roger Federer in three of them, and world No 2 Rafael Nadal in another one.

Ivan Ljubicic defeated Andre Agassi in straight sets in his first singles match.

Ivan Ljubicic then teamed with Mario Ancic to defeat the Bryan Brothers, then the world's second-ranked doubles team.

Ivan Ljubicic finally clinched victory for his country, defeating America's No 1 player and former world No 1 Andy Roddick in five sets.

Ivan Ljubicic reached consecutive finals of the last two Masters Series Events, losing to Nadal in Madrid after being up two sets to love and to Tomas Berdych at Paris.

Ivan Ljubicic finished the year ranked No 9 in the world and earned his first appearance at the year-end Masters Cup, where he was eliminated in the group stage.

Ivan Ljubicic then paired with Mario Ancic to win the doubles match.

Ivan Ljubicic bettered this feat when he made the semifinals of the French Open, beating Carlos Berlocq, Oscar Hernandez, Juan Monaco, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo and Julien Benneteau before the run ended with a loss to Rafael Nadal, who holds the record for the longest win streak on clay.

Ivan Ljubicic stated he hoped Roger Federer would defeat him in the final.

Ivan Ljubicic then defeated Justin Gimelstob, before losing in the third round to Dmitry Tursunov, after being up two sets to none.

Ivan Ljubicic then traveled to Gstaad, Switzerland to play in the Allianz Suisse Open on red clay.

Ivan Ljubicic then went to the Bangkok Open, where he was the top seed and reached the final round.

At the US Open, Ivan Ljubicic was drawn against Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the first round, as he had been at Wimbledon.

Ivan Ljubicic began his 2007 season with a victory at the $1 million Qatar ExxonMobil Open.

Ivan Ljubicic played in the Australian Open and was seeded fourth, but was surprisingly defeated in the first round by Mardy Fish.

Ivan Ljubicic bounced back well to make the final of the Zagreb Indoor Open, against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Ivan Ljubicic was then advised to take a break for the next couple of weeks.

Ivan Ljubicic then reached the semifinals of the China Open, losing to Fernando Gonzalez, the quarterfinals in Vienna, and the quarterfinals in Lyon.

Ivan Ljubicic was then granted a wildcard to a Challenger in East London, South Africa, where he defeated Stefan Koubek in straight sets.

At the inaugural Shanghai Masters event, Ivan Ljubicic reached the quarterfinals for the fourth time at a Masters 1000 event.

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Ivan Ljubicic won his first title since June 2007, at the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon event.

Ivan Ljubicic defeated Florent Serra, and wild cards Arnaud Clement in the semifinal and Michael Llodra in the final.

Ivan Ljubicic began the season with a third-round finish at the Australian Open, losing to Ivo Karlovic.

Ivan Ljubicic made the quarterfinals in the Dubai Tennis Championships, where he lost to eventual champion and world No 2 Novak Djokovic, in three sets.

Ivan Ljubicic became the first Croat to ever win the tournament, the second-oldest winner at the tournament, and the oldest first-time winner of a Master Series 1000 event.

Ivan Ljubicic reached the latter rounds of the Monte Carlo clay-court tournament and the third round at Wimbledon, where he lost to Andy Murray.

Ivan Ljubicic lost to David Nalbandian in the second round at the US Open.

Ivan Ljubicic coached Federer together with Swiss Davis Cup Captain Severin Luthi.

Ivan Ljubicic is known for his offensive and intelligent game, characterized by his deadly serve and powerful groundstrokes off both wings, as well as his excellent selection of shots.

Ivan Ljubicic's serve is often compared with contemporary Andy Roddick, being two of the best servers of the generation, although Roddick's serve relies on more power than precision.

Ivan Ljubicic usually stays at the baseline, relying on his fast, consistent and wide-driving groundstrokes, and uses slice and dropshots to great effect to surprise his opponents.

Ivan Ljubicic is very adept at the net, approaching when he sees fit, which made him a good doubles player.