Juan Carlos Ferrero crushes Ivan Ljubicic in second round – Studena Croatia Open 2011
Former world number one, Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero was flat in the opening set but made an epic comeback to pull out the victory in a three set thriller against third seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic at the Studena Croatia Open, an
ATP World Tour 250 series event held in Umag, Croatia. He registered a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over the crowd favourite, Ljubicic to advance into the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Currently ranked at 73rd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Ferrero stayed on course for the title after upsetting a former world number three at his home soil on their sixth meeting. It took the Spaniard
one hour and fifty-four minutes to overpower Ljubicic and by doing so he not only secured a last eight spot in this clay court event but also levelled the head-to-head series by 3-3 against the Croat.
After Ferrero kept his opening serve in the second game, the 32-year-old Croat went into savage mode to pull out a breadstick. He unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off last five games in a row. Ljubicic clobbered a poor
first serve share of 48 percent as compared to Ferrero’s 67 percent but registered a magnificent 69 percent win on it. In addition to this, he fended off all four breakpoints faced and capitalised on two out of six breakpoint chances to his advantage.
The Spaniard turned the tables around in the second set as he took an early lead after getting the coveted break in the second game. However, he couldn’t maintain the lead as he lost his serve in the proceeding game but he broke
the Croat’s serve again in the eighth game to eventually seal the equaliser with a 6-3 win.
The Onteniente born Ferrero carried his winning ways into the final set. He held his entire serves until he earned the desiderated break in the seventh game and put his nose in front for the first. Despite gifting away his serve
in the proceeding game, the Spaniard re-ignited his 2003 spark – when he was world number one, and bagged in last two games to clinch the decider with a 6-4 win.
"It was a strange start to the match and for sure I didn't expect the [first] set to finish so quickly," said Ferrero. "The key of the match was for me to stay positive at all times during the match. I knew I had to do more to
get into the match but for sure I need to start better in the matches to come."
Up next for the Spaniard is the Argentinean Carlos Berlocq who received a walkover against fifth seed Tommy Robredo.
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