2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Sergiy Stakhovsky vs Ivan Ljubicic
World number fifteen and a two time finalist here, Croatian, Ivan Ljubicic, hopes his third time will be lucky for him. Playing at the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam this week, Ljubicic starts his campaign against Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Played on indoor hard courts, the event is the first ATP 500 level tournament of the season held annually at the Ahoy Rotterdam indoor sporting arena.
Seeded ninth in the event, Ljubicic is playing in his ninth year here having debuted back in 2001. His first run at the event took him all the way to the quarterfinals where he was eventually defeated by eventual champion, Nicolas Estude.
His lucky breaks here came in 2005 and 2007 when he made two unsuccessful final runs losing to Roger Federer and Mikhail Youzhny respectively.
However, as of late i.e. the past three years, the Croat has failed to make it past the first round, bringing his career win loss mark at the event to 14-8.
Not having played in any of the season openers, Ljubicic, first appearance on the courts was in the 2011 Australian Open. Seeded seventeen then, the Croat was able to make his way into the third round moving past Peter Luczak and Benoit Paire before being
ousted by fourteenth seeded Nicolas Almagro.
His first tour level event of the season came only last week when he played at the home event, 2011 PBZ Zagreb as the second seed. A bye into the second round put Ljubicic against Daniel Brands.
Capitalizing on the home court advantage, Ljubicic was able to move past the German though he was forced to exit in the next round by compatriot and eventual champion, Ivan Dodig.
Unlike Ljubicic, Stakhovsky is playing in his third tour level event of the year, but he sports a similar year-to-date win loss mark so far.
Starting his run at the 2011 Qatar ExxonMobil Open, the Ukrainian was ousted in the first round by Viktor Troicki in straight sets. A week later, Stakhovsky was competing at the Medibank International Sydney.
Enjoying wins against Benjamin Becker and Guillermo Garcia Lopez, the Ukrainian made his way into the quarterfinals though he was ousted by Ernests Gulbis.
Almost a similar run as the Croat’s, Stakhovsky also made it into the third round of the Grand Slam Down Under. His early wins include doing away with Daniel Brands and Lukasz Kubot. However, his run at the event was stopped short by Tommy Robredo.
Appearing for only the third time here, Stakhovsky, has never made it past the first round. His debut here in 2009 started in the qualifying draw with him losing to Evgeny Korolev and failing to make it into the main draw.
The following year was his first main draw acceptance. However, drawn against Novak Djokovic, Stakhovsky retired halfway through the second set citing an injury.
This time around though, the Ukrainian believes he can go further and the first rung in that ascent ladder is his third career meeting with Ljubicic.
Standing at a level head to head score, both players are determined to take the lead on Tuesday. Their last meeting had come two years ago in 2009 when the pair met for their first round match at the AEGON Championships. The Croat had emerged victorious
on that occasion.
Prediction: Although Ljubicic outranks Stakhovsky by almost thirty places, the pair’s recent form suggests that the match is going to be a very close competition between the two and it would take a big stroke of luck for it to be over in
two sets.
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