Andy Roddick attempted to become the first American man to win the Indian Wells title since 2001. However, his efforts were dashed via a tight two-set defeat from Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic on Sunday.
Ljubicic won the battle of big-serving players at the final of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday. The Croat won 7-6, 7-5 to earn his first ATP Masters 1000 title. He finished runner-up three times in the past.
Roddick had defeated Ljubicic seven times in ten meetings and the last time they battled was at the same venue three years ago with the American winning the duel in two tiebreakers as well.
“I felt like I was winning my fair share of the rallies once we got into them. I just ran into a guy who served great on the big points. Unfortunately that’s probably the one thing that I don’t have control over out there. Credit to him. He came up with massive, massive serves when he had to,” Roddick said.
Ljubicic is projected to rise to number 13 in the rankings by Monday.
