Ivan Ljubičić (; born 19 March 1979) is a Croatian former professional tennis player, coach and Tennis TV commentator. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career highlights include reaching a major semifinal at the 2006 French Open, and a Masters title at the Indian Wells Masters in 2010. He also contested three other Masters finals, two in 2005 at Madrid and Paris, and the other at the 2006 Miami Open.
Since retiring, Ljubičić has coached ATP top-3-ranked players Milos Raonic and Roger Federer. He was credited with Federer's improved backhand later in his career, especially evident on high shots, as well as introducing tactical changes of taking shots much earlier: taking more time, pace, and rhythm off opponents and simultaneously making Federer's game more offensive.
Tennis career Ljubičić turned pro in 1998. During his career, he achieved his best results in indoor tournaments played on carpet or hardcourt. He reached consecutive indoor Masters finals in 2005 at Madrid and Paris, losing both of them in 5 sets. Ljubičić and Mario Ančić were the first doubles team to defeat Bob and Mike Bryan in Davis Cup history, and only one of four to have done that, the other teams being France's Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra, Brazil's Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjić and Ilija Bozoljac. Ljubičić helped Croatia win the 2005 Davis Cup, their first ever title, where they triumphed over the Slovak Davis Cup team in the final. He qualified for the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in 2005 and 2006.
Ljubičić served as the ATP Players' Council president and in 2008 became one of the few active players to serve on the ATP Board of Directors. He won his first Masters title in 2010, and retired in 2012 at the Monte-Carlo Masters.
After retirement, Ljubičić has worked as a coach and manager for several top 5 players.
Early years and juniors Ljubičić was born in Banja Luka, at the time SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia to a Bosnian Croat father, Marko, and a Bosniak mother, Hazira (née Beganović). He started playing tennis as a child in 1988, and he soon won his first local awards as a junior. In May 1992, because of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the family left Banja Luka, and Ivan, his mother and his brother moved to Opatija, Croatia, while his father was unable to leave. In November 1992, they were reunited and moved to Rijeka. Soon after, in April 1993, Ljubičić went to a tennis club in Moncalieri near Turin, Italy. During the next three years, Ljubičić grew into a promising prospect.
1995 He decided to play for Croatia and in 1995 won his first junior championship, becoming the Croatian under-16 champion. The same year, he won his first ATP points and played for the Croatian team in the Winter Cup (European under-16 indoors championship). Pairing up with Željko Krajan, he won the Orange Bowl (the unofficial world under-16 championship).
1996 In 1996, the family moved to Zagreb, while Ivan continued his successes. He joined the tennis club Mladost and played in more and more junior ITF tournaments. His biggest success as a junior was reaching the final at Wimbledon, where he was defeated by Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus after winning the first set.
1997 He reached the Australian Open junior semifinal in 1997 and won the Eddie Herr tournament, which made him the No. 2 junior in the world. In early 1997, he started training with the Italian professional coach Riccardo Piatti. His successes continued: quarterfinals of the junior French Open, and first steps of entering professional tennis.
1998 He turned professional in 1998 and played in the final of the ATP Challenger in Zagreb, where he lost to former French Open finalist Alberto Berasategui. He played a number of smaller tournaments the same year, but had little success and finished the year ranked No. 293.
1999 In 1999, he won two Futures tournaments, as well as a Challenger in Besançon, France. He won two more victories in the qualifications for the Casablanca Tour event, where he was defeated by Juan Carlos Ferrero. He then entered the Super 9 tournament in Monte Carlo (today's Monte Carlo Masters), where he reached the third round after an amazing run in which he defeated Andrei Medvedev and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. He also played in the Croatia Open in Umag, where he was eliminated in the semifinal by Magnus Norman. He finished the year ranked world No. 77.
2000 In 2000, Ljubičić played in two semifinals (Sydney and Båstad) and three quarterfinals (Marseille, Copenhagen, and Brighton). He also played in the third round of the Olympic tournament.
2001 He won his first ATP singles title at Lyon in 2001, after defeating Gustavo Kuerten, Gastón Gaudio, Marat Safin, and Younes El Aynaoui. At that point he reached No. 29 in the professional rankings and continued to play well, participating in seven ATP Tour semifinals: Adelaide, Rotterdam, Miami, St. Polten, Gstaad, Umag, and Cincinnati. He finished the year ranked No. 37.
2002 In 2002, he was in two semifinals (Rotterdam and Gstaad) and four quarterfinals (Adelaide, Dubai, Umag, and Tashkent) on the ATP Tour, and it was the first time he passed the first round at a Grand Slam, when he reached the third round of the Australian Open, where he was stopped by Wayne Ferreira in five sets. He ended the year ranked No. 49, and also No. 2 in the number of aces, behind Wayne Arthurs.
2003 In 2003, he reached the semifinals of Milan, Dubai, Bangkok, and Basel. He also reached the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters and the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters. He lost in the second round in the U.S. Open to Andy Roddick, who would then go on to become the champion that year. The score was 3–6, 7–6, 3–6, 6–7.
2004 In 2004, he started the year as the runner-up to Nicolas Escudé in Doha, and also played in the semifinals in the Hamburg Masters, Indianapolis, and the Madrid Masters. He also reached the quarterfinals at Basel and the Miami Masters. At the Olympics, he teamed up with Mario Ančić to win the bronze medal in doubles. They were defeated by the Chilean duo of Fernando González and Nicolás Massú, the eventual gold medalists, in the semifinals. In the bronze medal match, they defeated the Indian team of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes. During the year, Ivan married his wife Aida, who is always with him at ATP tournaments. They have two children.Baby Boom: Tennis Players Become Parents Tennis.com, 30 December 2008.Ivan Ljubičić: A proud leader, Tennis.com, 17 April 2012.
2005 In 2005, Ljubičić won two ATP titles and was the runner-up at another six, losing to world No. 1 Roger Federer in three of them, and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in another one.
After the retirement of Goran Ivanišević, Ljubičić was the top player on the Croatian Davis Cup team. In the first round of Davis Cup, the Croatian team defeated the United States in the first round played in March. Ljubičić defeated Andre Agassi in straight sets in his first singles match. He then teamed with Mario Ančić to defeat the Bryan Brothers, then the world's second-ranked doubles team. He finally clinched victory for his country, defeating America's No. 1 player and former world No. 1 Andy Roddick in five sets.
In July at the Davis Cup Quarterfinals, Ljubičić again won his singles matches against Romania's Victor Hănescu and Andrei Pavel, and then together with Ančić in the doubles match defeated the Pavel-Gabriel Trifu duo in five sets. In the semifinal held in September against the Russian team, Ljubičić defeated Mikhail Youzhny in five sets in his first singles match. He teamed with Ančić to defeat Igor Andreev and Dmitry Tursunov in another five-set match. Finally, he defeated Nikolay Davydenko to secure victory for Croatia.
He reached consecutive finals of the last two Masters Series Events, losing to Nadal in Madrid after being up two sets to love and to Tomáš Berdych at Paris. He finished the year ranked No. 9 in the world and earned his first appearance at the year-end Masters Cup, where he was eliminated in the group stage (Ljubičić was one of a number of entrants who were invited due to the withdrawal of higher-ranked players, such as No. 2 Rafael Nadal).
In the Davis Cup final, Ljubičić defeated Karol Kučera in the opening singles match. He then paired with Mario Ančić to win the doubles match. Although Ljubičić lost his second singles match to Dominik Hrbatý, Ancic's victory over Michal Mertiňák in the final match gave Croatia its first Davis Cup victory.
2006 Prior to the Australian Open, Ljubičić played a tournament in Chennai. Seeded first, he was expected to do well on the hard courts there. He reached the final and defeated Spaniard Carlos Moyà. At the Australian Open, he reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. He defeated Thomas Johansson of Sweden in straight sets in the fourth round. He lost to eventual finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the quarterfinals in five sets. After the Australian Open, he played at the Zagreb Indoor Open, which is played on carpet, a surface typically favoured by Ljubičić. He reached the final once more and defeated Stefan Koubek.
He bettered this feat when he made the semifinals of the French Open, beating Carlos Berlocq, Óscar Hernández, Juan Mónaco, Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo and Julien Benneteau before the run ended with a loss to Rafael Nadal, who holds the record for the longest win streak on clay. It was speculated that Ljubičić was able to make it this far because his highest-ranked opponent was not even ranked in the top 70. After the match, Ljubičić made controversial comments about how Nadal took too much time between points. He stated he hoped Roger Federer would defeat him in the final. However, Nadal went on to beat Federer in the final. Ljubičić then traveled to Queen's Club, defeating Răzvan Sabău before losing to Gaël Monfils in the round of 16.
At the Wimbledon Championships, Ljubičić faced 2005 quarterfinalist Feliciano López. He won 11–9 in the fifth. He then defeated Justin Gimelstob, before losing in the third round to Dmitry Tursunov, after being up two sets to none. He then traveled to Gstaad, Switzerland to play in the Allianz Suisse Open on red clay. Being the top seed, he defeated Spaniard Albert Portas in the first round and Marco Chiudinelli in the second round, before losing to seed Feliciano López in straight sets. In the Canada Masters, he reached the third round, before losing out to Fernando González. He then went to the Bangkok Open, where he was the top seed and reached the final round. He met America's James Blake, but was defeated and moved to no. 3 on the ATP ace list. He did not remain no. 3, due to David Nalbandian, who pushed him down by advancing to the semifinals in Madrid. At the US Open, Ljubičić was drawn against Feliciano López of Spain in the first round, as he had been at Wimbledon. Lopez defeated Ljubičić in straight sets.
2007
Ljubičić began his 2007 season with a victory at the $1 million Qatar ExxonMobil Open. En route to his victory, he defeated Andy Murray in the finals. In doing so, he became the race leader in the 2007 Indesit ATP Race. In this tournament, Ljubičić played his first competitive match with a Head racquet, after abandoning his previous racket sponsor, Babolat.