It’s nice to be able to write Congrats, Rafa! on the same day the Spaniard suffered his biggest upset since last year’s Roland Garros. He’s also projected to fall to No. 4, behind Andy Murray, when the ATP updates the rankings. But Rafa squelched his disappointment by returning to the court on Saturday night, where the Singles Super Star/Trusty Sidekick pair beat the No. 1 team of Nenad Zimonjic/Daniel Nestor to take the Indian Wells doubles title. It’s Rafael Nadal’s and Marc Lopez’s second title as a team and also their second victory in a final over Zimonjic/Nestor (the first one coming in Doha in 2009.)
Here’s Rafa on the big doubles win:
“For me it’s a pleasure to play with Marc,” said Nadal. “He’s a very close friend of mine, and we do really well. After losing important singles, the victory in doubles makes me happy. Always is nice to win a tournament.” (via BNPParibasOpen)
And here’s Rafa on his big singles loss:
“That was an accident today,” Nadal told reporters after failing in his bid to win a third title at Indian Wells in four years. “That’s my feeling, because I was playing (well) enough to win the tournament.
“It was an important accident, and I have to learn to try to play more aggressive next time, try to convert the opportunities.
“But for the rest, nothing to say, no? I was feeling I was playing better than probably ever on this court.” (via Reuters)
He also said he was “destroyed mentally” in the third set tiebreak, because he felt he “never had to arrive to this tiebreak.” (via @tennisreporters) Huh, wonder if he analyzed it, anyway?
Here’s Ljubicic’s take on his big victory:
By “why not go all the way?” Ivan means “why not beat Andy Roddick?” The two first-time IW finalists will face each other on Sunday afternoon. Roddick holds a 7-3 advantage in the head-to-head, winning their last meeting in 2007, in the quarterfinals of this tournament.
For those of you who were hoping for some Nadal vs. Soderling fireworks, I offer you this ancient trash talk from the 2003 US Open. It came after Ljubicic lost to a young – and reputedly cocky – Andy Roddick in the second round (via Tribune.ie):
“I mean, generally, I don’t like him (Roddick).” [Ljubicic told the press after his loss.] “Nobody in the locker room likes his acting on the court. He’s a good player. He’s going to win a lot of matches, but not because he’s like that. Nobody acts like that. He’s the only one.”
“He doesn’t respect the others,” said Ljubicic. “Some other player is going in your face and you understand that they just want to win a match. But what he’s doing is just pumping up the crowd, which in the United States he can do. But everywhere else, if he does it, people just smile. Fortunately for him, 70% of the big tournaments are played in the United States. He’s number four in the world for that.”
Roddick said he was surprised by Ljubicic’s tirade. “I think if they (rival players) are talking, they’re not talking to me about it, which would be the mature thing to do, ” he said.
Andy reportedly called Ivan Ljubicic at 1:00 am after hearing about his remarks, asking why he didn’t speak directly to him instead of the press. Ivan then told the press all about the call:
‘‘I asked him last night if he feels like I should apologize to him,” said Ljubicic, retracing his conversation with Roddick. ‘‘He said, ‘If you really don’t feel nothing bad about me, why should you apologize?’ I think this is perfect.”
‘‘I just wanted to say that I didn’t like his attitude on the court, not just last night but generally,” Ljubicic said. ”I don’t have to like it, you know.” (click here to read the old piece from the New York Times – it’s an interesting flashback to tennis days gone by.)
Obviously their semi-public spat happened a very long time ago, and I’m sure neither player cares or even really remembers much about it. But it’s an interesting reminder of how much the pecking order and these two players have changed in the past seven (!) years. Now it’s Andy Roddick who’s calling out young guns like Gael Monfils and Novak Djokovic. It’s also pretty cool that both Ivan and Andy are still around and fighting for a Masters shield on Sunday. This will be Roddick’s first chance since winning his fourth such event at Cincinnati in 2006. This will be Ljubicic’s fourth attempt to win his first Masters title, his last chance coming in Miami in 2006 (l. to Federer.)
Taking it back to the present: Singles semifinalist, Sam Stosur, wasn’t quite able to go all the way in doubles on Saturday. She and partner Nadia Petrova lost to 6-4, 2-6, 10-5 to the team of Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik.
Tags: Daniel Nestor, Indian Wells, Ljubicic, Marc Lopex, Nadal, Nenad Zimonjic, Peschke, Petrova, Roddick, Soderling, Srebotnik, Stosur
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Wow, Ivan seems to be a very cool, collected guy — Roddick must have pulled an Agassi on him (and everyone else), not that I’m surprised. Everything Roddick does or says annoys me in general, so Ivan just explained it why.
Tennis is amazing, you can really feel the personality of the players from the TV.
very happy for rafa and marc. they had such great energy and courage out there against the #1 team. much more positive and after winning that first set, they kept going and it was surprising to see dani and nenad kind of going away after that. they didn’t bring the fight and maybe didn’t know what to do vs nadal. marc more than held his own, which was nice to see. love that doubles was given its due yesterday. i wish fed played more doubles with marco, stan or whomever! i’m also diggin the crystal star trophies. classy and for once, not wacky!
oh no, rog is rubbing off on rafa re: tie breaks.
it must be tough for them because they expect so much of themselves and were playing well this week. as long as they bring the heat in miami, they’ll be fine. it’s so wrong that nadal will be #4 though, ahead of murray, who played pretty horribly vs. le sod. i hope rafa picks things up because i always feel like the tennis world is in order when it’s rog, rafa, nole, murray, roddick. i know the rankings reflect what the players have accomplished, but this defending your points thing can be rough.
i suspect there won’t be any weird tension between andy and ivan. that was a long time ago. i love that you like to spice things up ff! you love the trash talk! even back then andy was all about settling confrontations asap and in person. they’ve both grown up and have been around a long time. can’t believe it’s been 4 years since both have been in a masters 1000 final. awesome for them! i guess it’s been the rog, rafa, nole, murray show for quite some time too, so it’s good to spread the wealth. i don’t know who to root for, maybe ivan since he’s like 40?
go old man! i prefer him without the headband though.
Didn’t Rafa once ask Roger to play doubles with him and Roger turned him down? I was like “NOOOOOO! PLEASE DO IT!!!”
I know he needs to save himself but maybe he’ll do it more now that the pressure is off for him to win every tournament.
Roger played doubles a couple years ago at IW (I got to watch int the smaller stadium) but he tends to lose early! Maybe he needs a better partner. . .like RAFA!
hope my comments show up here and in the semi highlights post. sorry for the trouble ff!
this is all just a big set up because of betting and such things, otherwise i don’t have a rational explaination why rafa, roger, djokovic or murray aren’t in finals
Judy I’m glad you brought Up the tie break remark .. Oh and it was an accident luby beat him? Ivan didn’t deserve it?? Get the pitchforks.. I’m only kidding .. It’s just the constant need to comb through and cherry pick top athletes words
disturbs me.. Especially Rogers words who’s pressers get cherry picked the most.. Let them be great people .. For the record I like rafa and rog alike.
I don’t even like roger…I’m just tryin to be realistic,I think setting matches and results is done more often than people are ready to belive. and to be honest I would rather think that,than saying ok ljubicic beat rafa just like that (it’s more likely he did realy beat novak for example).
Roger says shouldn’t be in tiebreak = douchbag
Rafa says shouldn’t be intiebreak=honest/humble
I will never understand…?.??
Ljubicic was awesome in the big points, especially in the 3 set. Rafa is my man, but let’s quit all this wondering why. Somedays you just get beat. And Ljubicic seems like a really nice guy and maybe he deserves it. I hope he wins the tournament. Rafa should be happy because he really well. And I think that he is back, from the injuries and the destruction of his world when his parents split up. I think that, more than anything else is what has affected him. Look back at his interview from last years loss to Del Potro in Miami when he said “there’s always something personal” referring as to why he lost. He always described his home as “perfect”(read the article about him from NYT magazine) and it all came crashing down. He’s had a tough year and I think he’s finally finding his way. VAMOS RAFA!
what’s there to understand rafa IS honest,and yes I belive humble,and maybe I missed couple of years not watching tennis so I can’t say that for fed hahahah:) anyway,now that ljubicic is in the final ofcourse I would like him to win. but,the most important JJ finally won a title:) I think it’s great she took adventage of some of the best players weren’t here,these are the moments wheh she has a chance go JJ!
Now we know that the banner really jinxed the players!
ohmigod..i was thinking the same thing myself…roger, rafa, and now andy.. you’ll have to remind me to put the “other” tennis player on the banner from here on out. *sigh
Thought it was intentional as a gift to Ivan? Either way, I’m happy.
Now we will know who’s ‘least favorite’ for GTT if they’re on the next banner.
Oh no! I hope this was just a coinky-dink. After all, we do like putting Roger on the banner pretty often. . .
Really nice speeches by Andy and Ivan when accepting their trophies – Andy joking that other than today’s result, he was happy that last year’s locker room rumors of Ivan retiring hadn’t turned out to be true, and Ivan calling Andy’s energy an inspiration.
The way Ivan and his wife hugged each other after the win — I pretty much started crying myself. It was so wonderful to see how much the win meant to them.