The end of former world No.3 Ivan Ljubicic’s career is over. After losing to fellow Croat Ivan Dodig, the 33-year old broke down into tears. “I felt like it could end up emotional, but I didn’t expect it this big, this emotional,” he told reporters. “Obviously, it’s the end of something beautiful for me. I knew my mind was everywhere else but on the tennis court.”
During his tennis career, Ljubicic served as the Vice President and President on the ATP Player Council, and his best result in any singles Grand Slam was a semifinal run in the 2006 French Open.
“Really to feel also now walking into the locker room, all the guys standing and clapping, it’s something beautiful to see how guys respected me and the way I represented them for many, many years.”
Good luck in the future, Ivan, and may you be happy without your favorite sport!
Caroline Wozniacki has been forced to retire from the Bastad Tournament with a Shoulder Injruy. Wozniacki was leading Sofia Arvidsson 6-2 0-1 when she had to retire.
There arent a lot of details at this stage, but once we get more we will let you know.
Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman has bowed out of professional tennis after a glittering 17 year career that earned him nine Grand Slam doubles titles.
Bjorkman, 36, was treated to a special ceremony at Qi Zhong Stadium after he and partner Kevin Ullyett were knocked out of the Tennis Masters Cup doubles.
“They reminded me a little bit that this is obviously maybe my last match,” said Bjorkman, who noticed preparations for the farewell ceremony during the match.
“You know, I was trying to do everything possible to stay alive one more day, or maybe two.”
Bjorkman won all four doubles Grand Slams as well as the 1998 Davis Cup with Sweden and also reached the 1997 US Open singles semi-final and the last four at Wimbledon just two years ago.
Bjorkman and Ullyett fell to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski as the Swede failed in his bid for a third year-end title.
“I still think it’s great to end my career in the biggest event of the year, even if I would have gone further. But you can’t have everything,” he said.
“I’ve been mentally prepared for this because I’m mentally very ready to retire. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to play for so long.”
Bjorkman, who will now concentrate on editing a Swedish tennis magazine, cited the 1997 US Open loss to Britain’s Greg Rusesdski as his biggest regret.
“Obviously losing to Greg Rusedski in the semi-final was a tough loss because I think that was a chance for me maybe to go all the way,” he said.
Alicia Molik has officially announced her retirement from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Molik has been a top ten player and has been leading women’s tennis in Australia for years. Molik has won five singles and seven doubles titles, including the 2005 Australian Open doubles trophy with Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Molik was on tour for over twelve years and she is still only 27. Alicia has had a lot of injuries over the years and recently she found it near impossible to recover from an inner ear infection which caused her to miss six months.
Molik will really be missed, but I’m sure we will see her at the Australian Open in a commentary job.
