February 29, 2008

Zagreb Semi-finals


Ivan Ljubicic (CRO)
vs.
Mario Ancic (CRO)
Previous meetings: Ljubicic leads 3-1.


An all Croatian affair in this second semi-final today and whoever emerges the victor will be a big favourite to take the title tomorrow after the mass exodus of seeds in the bottom half. The odds have come out and Ancic has been set as a medium fave at 1.6 with Ljubicic around the 2.5-2.6 mark. I must admit I was surprised by these odds, I thought they would be set much closer. Seems to me people may be over-reacting slightly with the whole Ancic comeback thing... Yeah we all know he’s potentially a fantastic player, but he's not fully fit yet and you can’t expect him to be back to his best already. He hasn't been tested by a player with the experience of someone like Ivan yet, both Mahut and Haase failed to capitalise on their chances and Gremelmayr was very poor.

Ljubicic has actually impressed me this week, he always plays well in Zagreb and is seeking to reach his 3rd consecutive final in a row here. He’s averaging 70% 1st serves in and 80% service points won overall and breaking him looks like mission impossible. Gaba had to pull off two stunning passing shots just to get to 15-40 on a Ljubo service game (the only two BPs he's faced all week) and even then the mission was far from accomplished as the big man promptly saved both with 2 service winners. Even his ground game is looking better than it has in a long time with his backhand showing flashes of its brilliant form of old, and with his own serve completely dominant
I would rate him as being more likely to get the crucial break (Ancic has been broken twice already this week).

And if, as is very probable, it goes to tiebreaks, Ljubo actually has a superior tiebreak record to Ancic and has a knack for coming through on the most important points, thanks to his experience. In any case if it does go to a TB, a point or two here and there will decide it, so Ljubo at 2.6 is great value to me anyway. Good luck.

Ljubicic to beat Ancic @ 2.60 (4 units to win 6.4 units) WIN


Result: Ljubicic def. Ancic 7-6(2) 6-4.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

He impressed me as well . Losing like that to a lucky loser in the final . Impressive stuff.

Anonymous said...

Wow! tbh I never would have guessed that match. Grats!

Anonymous said...

LOL Beating super mario and then losing to a LL in the final - now that's a classic :)

Anonymous said...

I believe this is the first time a lucky loser has won an ATP tour event since 1991
Now thats WHAT you call lucky. And lucky for him he met Ljubicic in the final.

The Nameless One said...

He tanked his final qualies because he was already assured of getting the LL spot after Hernych lost you fucking cretin, the fact he was a lucky loser is irrelevant. Canas was a lucky loser when he beat Federer last year, for the exact same reason. Do you actually know anything about how the tour works moron?

Anonymous said...

I would like to know why the namelessone is so incredibly rude to the author of the first three comments on here when he has done nothing to warrant that murderous outburst. Why get so het up about those few words? He was not rude to you at all. Why have you took it so personally? He was merely pointing out the irony of it all. And like I said it is so very rare for a lucky loser to win a tournament. 17 years ago in fact.
Were you born without any humour namelessone or have you had a bypass in recent times?
I only hope the guy comes back on here and gives it you right back.
Pompous ass

Biscuits said...

When are you going to update this blog you lazy SOB? And don't give me any of that "tennis is dead" crap either. It merely has a cholestrol problem.

Anonymous said...

Whether you find it an odd suggestion or not, I second Ruggers! I miss your chatbox!

The Nameless One said...

You miss wings' monologues?

Anonymous said...

One thing thats not missed is the dickhead schoolboy calling people cretins and morons and calling top tennis players dicksters and telling the non listening public how much he hates this or that or him or her.
Why people debate with that one or would suck up to him and try and win his approval. Or even miss him when he pretends to go is beyond me.
Even the L.L admitted he was indeed very lucky to win. Straight from the horses mouth . But of course schoolboy knows better than him as usual.

Anonymous said...

...and cue! ;)

Anonymous said...

LOl. !! Debs. Curt at the very least LOL

The Nameless One said...

Strange how 6 of these comments are from the same IP address despite having different sign-in names... Funny that.

Anonymous said...

Not being a computer boffin, what info can you glean from an IP address? (concerned of Kent ;))