Ljubicic Celebrates First ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Title

© Getty ImagesIvan Ljubicic wins his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

Croatian Ivan Ljubicic completed his giant-slaying run at the BNP Paribas Open, defeating World No. 8 Andy Roddick 7-6(3), 7-6(5) on Sunday afternoon in Indian Wells to capture his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

He capitalized on his fourth championship point, hitting a huge serve that Roddick was unable to return, and savored the moment with a mixture of disbelief, relief and happiness etched on his face after runner-up finishes in his three previous ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals.   

“Looking at my career in general, I did feel like I was missing it,” said Ljubicic. “It's really fantastic feeling to finally have it. It gives something special to your career. It's just another thing that after Davis Cup, Olympic medal and two Top 10 finishes, one Top 5 finish and now in Masters 1000, it makes everything look better actually.”

Watch Sunday Highlights  | Watch Ljubicic Interview

The championship match lived up to its billing as a battle between big servers, with neither player dropping serve during the two-hour, seven-minute final. Though both players came up against tricky situations early on, with Roddick facing triple break point on serve in the first game and Ljubicic in the fourth, both reeled off five straight points to get out of trouble.

After playing what he called the “best tie-break of my life” against Rafael Nadal on Saturday, Ljubicic once again came up big against Roddick, despite the American’s impressive 14-2 mark to his 3-4 mark in tie-breaks this season. He put Roddick on the defensive as he took the early mini-breaks in each, and held on to edge the American both times.

Ljubicic, who double-faulted on his first championship point, said about his play in the tie-breaks: “I think it was more mental. Both tie-breaks I felt more relaxed, especially in the second tie-break. In fact, there was some strange things happening by the end of that match, but that just shows you how relaxed I was.”

The victory capped off a tremendous week for the Croatian, who posted an upset win over World No. 2 Novak Djokovic in the fourth round and No. 3 Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, and in between celebrated his 31st birthday on Friday.

Watch Ljubicic's Sunday Hot Shot

The 26th-ranked Ljubicic became the first player outside the Top 20 to capture an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title since World No. 21 David Nalbandian won the Paris title in November 2007 (d. Nadal).

Coincidentally, the other two players ranked outside the Top 20 to claim the Indian Wells title (since 1990) were also ranked No. 26, with Alex Corretja defeating Thomas Enqvist in 2000 and Jim Courier defeating Guy Forget in 1991.

With his effort over this past fortnight, the former World No. 3 – who has now won 10 tour-level titles – will move back into the Top 20 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings on Monday for the first time since January 2008. He is projected to climb to around No. 13.

“I want to fight for [the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in] London and try to finish Top 10 another year,” he said. “But it's not gonna be easy, that's for sure. Just the fact that I won here doesn't make me No. 3, 5 player in the world. I have to be realistic enough and try to steal that maybe 7th or 8th spot from younger guys who might be injured or not fit and not consistent enough (laughter). But it's a long season in front of us, so who knows what it's gonna bring us.”

Roddick, who was contesting the BNP Paribas Open final for the first time in eight appearances, was attempting to complete his collection of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in North America. The 27 year old won Montreal in 2003, Miami in 2004, and Cincinnati in 2003 and '06.

“I played well. I hit the ball real well, even today,” said Roddick, who had held six break point opportunities. “I felt like I was winning my fair share of the rallies once we got into them. I just ran into a guy who served great on the big points. Unfortunately that's probably the one thing that I don't have control over out there. Credit to him. He came up with massive, massive serves when he had to.”