It's terrible for Ivan (From The Argus)

It's terrible for Ivan

8:00am Friday 19th June 2009 in

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Ivan Ljubicic must have walked under a lot of ladders, crossed the paths of numerous black cats and broken several mirrors during the past 12 months.

The jinxed Croatian suffered another injury mishap at Eastbourne yesterday, which both wrecked his chances of reaching the semi-finals of the AEGON International and makes him doubtful for Wimbledon.

Ljubicic had taken the first set 6-3 against veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro when disaster struck midway through the second set.

He was 4-2 down and at 15-15 on Santoro’s serve when, advancing to the net, he slipped and twisted his left ankle.

Ljubicic yelled out in pain and was unable to continue after treatment.

He limped off centre court for a scan, the result of which will determine whether he can take his place in the field at the All-England club next week.

Santoro, fearing the worst, said: “As soon as he fell down he screamed so loud so I quickly knew it could be serious.

“You always feel bad when something like that happens to your opponent, especially when he is a friend. He was controlling the match so it was a bad situation.

“He was serving very well and playing some good tennis.”

It has been a wretched year for Ljubicic, the former world No. 3. now down at 75. Earlier in the week he was optimistic that his injury woes were behind him.

He explained: “First it was my back, then I tore my hamstring at the end of July last year and I didn’t play basically for the rest of the year.

“I had the one of the best treatments I could get at AC Milan’s training camp.

“I was lucky enough to be able to use their facilities and trainers.

“It is a really tricky injury, because it tends to keep coming back, but so far it has been all right.”

The latest setback for Ljubicic, 30, cut short an intriguing quarter-final between the two oldest players in the field, with 14 titles between them.

It was not the way Santoro would have wished to get his nose in front in their private battle.

They first played each other at the ill-fated Samsung Open at the Brighton Centre nine years ago and the score stood at four wins each.

Santoro’s opponent in the semi-finals today is 24-year-old Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic, which is not as much of a surprise as it seems.

Dancevic is currently ranked 126 but has been as high as 65 and he possesses an impressive grass court pedigree.

He won at Surbiton last summer before going on to defeat David Nalbandian in straight sets in the first round at Wimbledon.

Dancevic, a 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 winner yesterday against Argentinian Leonardo Mayer, said: “Grass is definitely one of my favourite surfaces to play on. When I come on to the grass I feel at home.

“It hasn’t been raining much so the courts have slowed down quite a bit, which was in my opponent’s favour. It was a very difficult match and I was lucky to hang on.”

It is hard to call a winner today if Dancevic’s last meeting with Santoro is anything to go by.

That was also on grass last year at Newport Rhode Island, where Dancevic won on a third set tie-break on his way to the semi-finals.

In the bottom half of the draw, Dmitry Tursunov, the Russian second seed, followed up his narrow victory on Wednesday against British No. 2 Alex Bogdanovic with a 7-6, 6-4 victory against the unseeded Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan.

Tursunov’s semi-final opponent is Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

The Spanish eighth seed beat Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.