As you all noticed yesterday, if not before, Ivan Ljubicic, has incorporated some signature elements of his friend and countryman Goran Ivanisevic’s serve into his own delivery, probably as a result of all the time the two of them spent together during Croatia's enchanted – and enchanting - run to the Davis Cup glory.
So let’s have a moment of silence, to acknowledge how much we miss the Croatian sensation cum quote machine cum flake cum tattooed lover boy cum left-handed, God-loving, flame throwing, basso profoundo Technicolor Pete Sampras nightmare.
Ljubicic is unlike Ivanisevic in many ways – he lacks Goran’s star quality his dramatic flair, and his volatility; we all know Goran was addicted to the agony of victory and the thrill of defeat, making us sit through 15 years worth before he decided to wipe it all away with a single tournament victory that even Cinderella had stopped believing could happen.
Also, JiffyLjub’s inspirational life story (read it here - and if you’re reading this Neven, you big lug, visit TW and say Hi!) endows him with a gravitas that Goran can’t rival.
But then there is that Goran-esque frankness and compulsive honesty. Most tennis players are loathe to admit things like copying another player’s style, but Ljubicic is very up front about having copied Goran's serve:
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- But, yes, I mean, you know, that ball toss and stuff, when you hang around with the guys like that, you can learn a lot. Like also if you hang around with (Guillermo) Coria, for example, you can learn a lot about how to move on court and how to pass, play the passing shots. That's natural.
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What next, is this guy going to be the first tennis player to admit that he reads the newspapers (they almost all lie through their through their teeth about this. They rush to the newspapers and websites to see what people are writing, although you’ll never catch them admitting it)?
And here’s something else that Jiffy and Goran share: They both have this occasionally brooding, stare-into-your-Slibovitz, decidedly east European bent toward fatalistic realism. Who but a fatalistic realist would say quite what Ljubicic did about playing Federer, on the eve of yesterday’s NASDAQ 100 final:
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That's one thing that we all have in common. We play tennis and then we play against Roger and we lose. At least there is one feeling that everybody feels the same except Roger, you know.
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What I like best about Ljubicic, though, is that he’s Old School. He’s even more Old School than Goran was. It helps explain why I swelled up with sentiment watching the final. There was Roger, gallivanting around the court in – get this! – all white. And there was Ljubicic, bald as a cueball, eschewing even a hat (did you see his dome in those close-ups on ESPN? How about those Navratilova-grade veins popping on the dudes head? - How Old School is that?)
Speak, memory! For a moment, I thought I was wearing one of those Bjorn Borg, skin-tight Fila pinstriped shirts and Calvin Klein jeans, with the Studio 54 cut of “I Will Survive” blaring in the background.
In fact, while pondering the seamless and surgically precise execution taking place before my very eyes, I decided to make a little list of all the things that make JiffyLjub Old School.
1 – He doesn’t go to the towel after every freaking shot he hits.
2 – He doesn’t generate a lot of hype, and he doesn’t care. He says:
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” I don't mind at all, really. I don't like too much attention. I of course appreciate, like, for example, in Australia I played many matches on center court and here in the States, I don't know, probably tournaments, that they didn't like me, but in Indian Wells I played first match on center court, quarterfinal. Now again first match on center court, it's quarterfinal. So it's kind of difficult to switch courts every time, but, you know, it's all tennis. And if I play well, of course I'm gonna earn that attention, I'm gonna earn center court appearances, I hope.”
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3 – He wears the same shirt for an entire match.
4 – He plays the calls.
5 – He’s a generalist who’s backed up a great serve with a versatile game to find success. He's 24-3 this year, and No. 2 in the points race:
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”Definitely I feel like No. 2 player in the world. It's not a secret. It's not just the feeling. Also I think the numbers are showing the same way. I always say you cannot win the matches just with the serve, you have to play well. There are many guys out there who are serving very good but not doing this, not making the same results that I do. So definitely if you serve well, you can play much more relaxed on return games, and that definitely helps.
“The thing about the serve is like if the guy returns and you hit the winner the shot after, it's even better because it puts even more pressure on the returner to pick a side and try to hit a good return instead of just touching the ball and get it back. So it's combination. Those two combination, it's great. ”
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6 – He’s yet another example of a great player who’s succeeded against all the odds (see link to Neven’s story, above) to triumph over peers who had enormous advantages (see, El Shafei, Metreveli, Krishnan, Drobny, Navratilova, Morozova, Nastase, et al).
7 – He wears a jock strap. At least it looks like he does, and it ain’t something I was going to ask him about in a crowded presser full of women and men. Anyway, no red silk bikinis with little gold Gucci buckles on them for this hombre!
8 – He’s got a slick looking, one-handed backhand with so long a backswing that it looks like the guy is loading up one of those medieval catapults. Now we’re talkin’ Old School!
9 – He’s married to a Aida, a chick who feels no overpowering need to express every emotion known to man when she gets a little face time on the tube.
10 – He changes ends quickly.
11 – He thinks “Tennis Academy” is an American comedy about aspiring policemen.
12 – He can volley.
13 – He’s been known to say something other than “Well done” or “Have a Nice Day” to an opponent at the net. After he tooled Augustin Calleri the other day and went to the net to shake hands, he admitted: “I told him revenge on Friday, next Friday (smiling). Which, I think, is gonna be the case.” Translation: it’s Croatia vs. Argentina in Davis Cup this weekend.
14 – Mikey, TW’s Spiritual Advisor, admires him. In an email to me today, Mikey wrote:
“Sometimes Ljubicic's forehand makes me think of Edberg's because both look so awkward (the way the arm and the elbow are positioned through the shot) and from an aesthetic point of view are uglier than their respective backhands, but you know what? Both Edberg and Ljubi hit superb topspin forehands off that side! And Edberg used to play the percentages a lot on his forehand as well. . .” ‘Nuf said.
15 – He’s always ready to receive serve – none of this “staring at the strings to get in touch with my Inner Warrior” garbage for Jiffy!
16 – He appears to use the same racquet for a number of games, even though he gets them for free just like all the other guys.
17 – He can hit slice.
18 - He’s neither falsely modest nor excessively conceited about his success:
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Well, I mean, I was always consistent, just that, you know, three, four years ago, consistency meant third round and quarterfinal; now consistency means winning tournaments and playing finals. It's just that my level of tennis, it's little bit higher now than before. Every time when I go on the court, I think I'm gonna win and I am confident that I am the better player no matter who is on the other side except Roger, of course.
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19 – He’s been with the same coach (Riccardo Piatti) for all the time that matters, and he’s not afraid to give the guy the credit he deserves:
[quote[“he (piatti) has big influence in my life, more than my tennis, because we do really talk a lot about tactics and really little about technique, really little about pure tennis stuff. but, you know, he really help me a lot to grow as a man, to become professional tennis player, which has great significance.”
20- He knows that life isn’t fair and while he wishes it were, he’s okay with that. On Hawkeye, he said:
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”. . .Sometimes when I was lower ranked, I felt like the top guys have advantage of the lines man. Like sometimes in the big points they always gonna go for the better player. So, you know, now it's not happening. It's definitely at least I feel like the chair umpires are actually not even trying to make overrules anymore. They give all the pressure to the players. If they want to challenge calls, you know, they just go for it; I'm not gonna touch it. So I think it's a change in the game, you know. I'm not necessarily positive for any changes, but I think it's a good change. This one is a good change.”
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21:A – He loves Davis Cup; the 11-1 record he posted in leading his young nation to an inspiring win last year is the best since John McEnroe went 12-0 in 1982. Over 100,000 delirious Croatians welcomed the squad at the airport after the final tie.
21:B - He loves DC so much that he’s player-captain of Croatia’s Davis Cup team. Yes, you read that right, player-captain (in this day and age!), although not for long:
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“It is a lot of work, I have to say. I just announced that this next match is gonna be my last as a captain. It's not only sitting there, because I against Austria, I was sitting for four and a half sets and then after I played a match and that's not the problem. The problem is all the work with the media about the match, especially now when the match is coming closer, all the talks with the federation representing the players, representing everyone. It's not easy, definitely.
I think it was okay for match or two, but to do that on consistent basis, it's little bit too hard. (I Hope) Goran is going to change his mind and gonna take the team. If that doesn't happen, then, you know, we gonna have another captain.”
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21:C – He loves DC the way you ought, the way McEnroe (usually) did - unconditionally:
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”As I said, for me, I said no for three names in the past, but even if they bring those three names up again, it's I'm gonna play no matter what. That's not a question. ”
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22 – He respects the game and doesn’t wish he to be a movie star, soccer player, International Man of Mystery – or anything else. About being Davis Cup champion, he says:
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”Yeah, well, it's definitely a fantastic feeling to be a world champion in something in tennis. It's great. I consider it number two sport in the world. So it's great feeling to be a world champion and it gives you a lot of confidence. I know that, like, even Roger Federer never won Davis Cup, so it's really something special, something that gives you confidence when you go out there and you look at the other opponent and you feel like you have something more than the other guys do. It's not easy, I understand. It's something that you can't win by yourself, so it's definitely great feeling. You know, I feel proud because of that.”
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23 – I can’t think of anything else. Can you?