Andy Roddick rightly said that the finals would come down to serving.  Turning 31 during the Indian Wells tournament, Ivan Ljubicic was hoping to give himself a birthday present.  Ivan has not made a Masters 1000 final since 2006.  Indeed, Ljubicic has made three Masters 1000 finals in his career, twice in 2005, and once in 2006.  It’s not for lack of trying that Ljubicic tried to win those Masters.

In 2005, he reached the finals of Madrid, back when it was an indoors tournament, and lost to Rafa Nadal in the finals in five sets, including a tiebreak in the fifth set.  He also reached the finals of Paris and also lost in 5 sets to Tomas Berdych (to remind those that Berdych has been playing tennis for a while).  In 2006, he reached the finals of Miami, and lost in three tiebreaks to Roger Federer.

Since then, Ljubicic’s ranking has dropped to 26, coincidentally, 1 spot behind Tomas Berdych.  Clearly, with as man big hitters that are head of the sports who’s who including Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, and Davydenko, few expected Ivan Ljubicic to be victor after all was said in done, but perhaps few are so deserving of winning one more big one than the Croatian veteran.

Ljubicic and Roddick did what they did best.  They held serve.  Neither player was broken all day, despite facing break points on serve.  Roddick served his usual high percentage.  It came down to two tiebreaks and Ljubicic took command of both tiebreaks.  The second one got a bit dicey.  Ljubicic took a 6-2 lead, then tried for two big serves, but double-faulted to 6-3.  He lost one point to Roddick when challenging a second serve that turned out to be in, then lost another point on Roddick’s serve.  He finally nailed a big one and won the second set tiebreak, 7-5.

To win his first Masters 1000, he had to beat Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Roddick.  Consider this.  Djokovic had beaten Ljubicic 5 times in a row.  He hadn’t beaten Novak since 2006, their first meeting, and had lost as recent as Dubai.  Similarly, Nadal also had beaten Ljubicic 5 times in a row, and only lost in their first meeting back in 2005 in Doha, and lost to Nadal back in 2009 Shanghai.  He also has a 7-3 losing record to Andy Roddick.  He won their first meeting back in 2002, and had two more wins in 2005, but the two hadn’t played since 2007.  Andy has won their last two meetings and had a streak of 5 wins in a row prior to that.

So, it was hard to say that Ljubicic took the easy way to the title.  He had changed his training program to emphasize fitness figuring that he already knew how to hit a ball.  Andy Roddick was looking for his fifth Masters title, his first since 2006, but it was not to be.  Roddick, as usual, was gracious to his opponents.  Although not as old as Ljubicic, Roddick understands how hard it is to stay at the top of the game as you head into your later years.

In the post-match ceremony, he said that there were rumors that Ljubicic wanted to retire about a year ago, but he kept in the game and came back to win his first Masters 1000.  It may be the only big title he ever wins, but it’s surely a nice present.  Ivan is a father, his wife Aida travels with him, and his son, Leonardo was born in late 2008.

In a way, it was a good event for Roddick, too.  He hasn’t reached a final in a Masters 1000 since 2006 which he won in Cincinnati over Juan Carlos Ferrero and so even getting to the finals was something of an achievement.

And Rafa?  Don’t feel too bad for him.  Marc Lopez and Rafa beat the 5th ranked team (Dlouhy-Paes), the 3rd ranked team (Aspelin-Hanley) and the 2nd ranked team (Zimonjic-Nestor) on his way to a doubles title.  And it’s not even his first doubles title.  He and Lopez paired together to win Doha 2009 over Zimonjic-Nestor as well.

And thus endeth a pretty wild Indian Wells.  We were left with questions of the top 6 players in the world, and pretty much, all those questions remain.  Federer seems to have slipped a notch playing error-prone tennis in his loss to Baghdatis.  Rafa Nadal, despite looking pretty good throughout, is still title-free since 2009 Rome.  Andy Murray lost somewhat tamely to Robin Soderling.  Nikolay Davydenko is out for a few months even though he won his opening match against Ernests Gulbis.  Juan Martin del Potro didn’t even make it to Indian Wells and won’t make it to Miami either.

Despite losses, the 7th and 8th ranked player, Robin Soderling and Andy Roddick had to feel good about Indian Wells.  It was Soderling’s first semi at a Masters 1000 (although he did reach the semi of an ATP World Tour Final).  Til then his best finish was two quarterfinal finishes last year.  And of course, Andy Roddick hasn’t won a Masters 1000 since 2006.

So congrats to Ivan Ljubicic, and happy birthday!