Tennis

Croatia keeps U.S. on the skids

By wire services
Published March 7, 2005

CARSON, Calif. - The United States remains in a Davis Cup slump.

Ivan Ljubicic beat Andy Roddick in a taut, five-set marathon Sunday to give Croatia an insurmountable 3-1 lead in the opening-round matches.

Playing ironman for his country, Ljubicic outlasted Roddick 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11-9), 6-7 (7-5), 6-2 in a nearly four-hour match.

The remaining singles match became essentially an exhibition because Croatia clinched the round. Andre Agassi was scheduled to play Mario Ancic, but doubles specialist Bob Bryan subbed for the United States.

The 25-year-old Ljubicic began the round with a straight-set win over Agassi on Friday, then teamed with Ancic to hand Bryan and twin brother Mike their first Davis Cup loss in six matches.

Ljubicic also played and won three first-round matches in 2003 in Zagreb when Croatia eliminated the United States.

The Americans, who lost to Spain in the final last year, have won the Cup 31 times, but haven't taken it since 1995. The drought is their longest in 68 years.

The 34-year-old Agassi, who hadn't played for the United States since 2000, rejoined the team to try to help end the winless string, but lost to Ljubicic in opening singles. Roddick beat Ancic in four sets in their match the first day.

Roddick and Ljubicic played well in what was an exciting match, with one of Roddick's serves hitting 152 mph. But Ljubicic was able to punch back his opponent's powerful serves much of the match, setting up a string of lengthy rallies from the baseline.

After winning the fourth-set tiebreaker, Roddick immediately lost his serve in the opening game of the fifth set. Ljubicic broke Roddick's serve again in the fifth game to take control.

When Ljubicic finished it off with a service winner, the Croatian team locked arms and broke into an impromptu jig on the court.

Croatia seemed to have almost as many fans as the U.S. team in the lively, drum-banging and somewhat rowdy crowd of 6,584. Southern California is home to a large number of transplanted Croatians.

Croatia moves on to the quarterfinals against Romania, which defeated Belarus in the first round.

In other Cup matches:

Paul-Henri Mathieu blew three match points before outlasting Thomas Johansson 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4 as host France beat Sweden 3-2.

Marat Safin beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4 to send host Russia past Chile 4-1.

Victor Hanescu beat Vladimir Voltchkov to give host Romania a 3-2 win over Belarus.

Argentina, Agustin Calleri and Guillermo Coria easily won to help host Argentina sweep the Czech Republic 5-0.

Todd Woodbridge and Chris Guccione won singles matches to complete a sweep for host Australia 5-0 over Austria.

MADRID, Spain - "The king is humiliated."

"A disaster is consummated."

"We fell for the trap."

These and other headlines in Spanish newspapers greeted defending Davis Cup champion Spain after it lost to underdog Slovakia on Saturday.

Spain dropped both singles matches Friday and the doubles Saturday, giving the Slovaks an insurmountable 3-0 lead. Spain won a reverse singles match Sunday and finished 4-1.

Now Spain must play a qualifying match in September to try to retain a spot in the World Group.

Spanish newspapers echoed the team's gripes about the ultra-fast hardcourt in Bratislava. But the team was criticized for whining about the widespread practice of choosing the worst possible surface for the visiting team, which Spain did three months ago when it downed the United States on clay in Seville to win the title.

Spain played without three top players: Carlos Moya, Tommy Robredo and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

[Last modified March 7, 2005, 01:58:12]