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Confidence builder Unheralded Ljubicic surprises Martin at adidas Int'l
Posted: Wednesday January 12, 2000 09:54 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Defending titlist Todd Martin was eliminated from the adidas International in a surprise second-round loss Wednesday to 20-year-old Croat Ivan Ljubicic. Ljubicic, a last-minute addition in the draw after Frenchman Fabrice Santoro withdrew with a shoulder injury, clinched a quarterfinal spot against fifth-seeded Karol Kucera after edging Martin 7-6 (13-11), 6-4 on center court. "I beat Martin. There's no reason I can't beat Kucera," he said. The world No. 77 stunned the American, ranked in the world's top 10, by taking the long first-set tiebreaker and then grabbing a service break to go up 4-2 in the second. He then held his serve to claim the victory. "I beat (Yevgeny) Kafelnikov on clay, (Mark) Philippoussis indoors and Martin here (on rebound ace)," Ljubicic said. "I beat them on their surfaces, I think that's pretty good." Martin said one bad game cost him the match. "It's hard to be disappointed with the way I played," he said. "I had one bad game at 1-0 in the second set. I didn't feel real sharp but I didn't make a lot of poor mistakes either. "His serve was bigger than I thought it would be, and better than I thought. I'm surprised he's ranked where he is -- [Ljubicic's world ranking] will have to get better." Earlier, Anna Kournikova slowed Jennifer Capriati's tennis revival when she fought back from 1-4 down to beat the American 6-4, 7-5 in a second-round match. The eighth-seeded Kournikova surrendered her opening service game in both sets as Capriati produced the aggressive game that helped her defeat world No. 1 Martina Hingis and No. 5 Mary Pierce last week. But Capriati said she "fell asleep a bit" in the first set, allowing Kournikova to change the momentum of the match. "I didn't play as well as I did in the last few matches," she said. "[Kournikova] forced my errors -- she played as well as I've seen her play." Kournikova set up a quarterfinal meeting with American Alexandra Stevenson. The Russian said she was bracing herself for a barrage of big hitting. "She's a big girl and she hits the ball really hard -- I've never played against her, so it's going to be hard," she said. Defending titlist Lindsay Davenport breezed into the quarterfinals, taking 45 minutes to defeat Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-1, 6-2, while third-seeded Pierce routed Spaniard Conchita Martinez 6-1, 6-4. Dominique Van Roost of Belgium didn't win a game in her opening set against South African Amanda Coetzer before fighting back to eliminate the seventh-seed, 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance into a quarterfinal against Hingis. The second-seeded Davenport said swirling wind inside the center court at the Sydney Olympic venue made her task difficult. "Whenever you can win your first match of the year against a player in the 20s and go into the next round, it's great," she said. "I was a little unsure, not having played a match yet -- and going right into the second round sometimes is a little bit nerve-racking -- but I played really well." Davenport faces Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in the quarterfinals after the Spaniard outclassed Australia's top-ranked woman, Jelena Dokic, 6-4, 6-1. In other women's matches, sixth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France got a walkover into the final eight when Croatia's Silvija Talaja pulled out of their second-round encounter with a strained left hamstring. In men's second-round matches, Australian Lleyton Hewitt ousted Francisco Clavet with a 6-3, 6-2 victory on center court. The Spaniard beat top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten in the opening round, but couldn't combat the energy of the 18-year-old Hewitt. Jason Stoltenberg became the second Aussie to advance to the quarters when he beat seventh-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Fifth-seeded Karol Kucera of Slovakia had a 6-2, 6-4 win against Frenchman Arnaud Clement, Czech Slava Dosedel defeated Andrew Ilie of Australia 6-3, 7-5, and Romanian Adrian Voinea edged Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2.
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