As a young player, being driven around by his father in Bosnia, they were stopped by hooded gunmen and scared stupid; his father sent him and his mother abroad to safety after that and for six months he did not know if his dad he was alive or dead...
Thankfully, he did reappear and after some time as refugees in several countries, the young Ljubicic was spotted by an Italian coach and the rest as they say, is history. He has been ranked in the Top 10 in previous years, but is most definitely not yet ready to throw in the towel and retire!
He played with skill and determination, his years of experience at times giving him a distinct edge and demonstrating that you do not always need power shots to get the upper hand... He used very gentle short taps over the net to devastating effect on several occasions!
Ljubicic won the first set, Murray won the second, and stormed through the third. The game swung first to one, then the other, and even for those of us used to the edge-of-the-seat-nerves of watching any British player at Wimbledon, it was stressful!
But young Andy has come a long way, not just physically, but mentally.
Yes, you could see the frustration when he lost a point, or fluffed a shot, but he got over it, and moved on. Not only that, but he moved on very quickly; in any fast paced game, such as tennis (or life!) you cannot afford to hang about, you need to be taking the positives and using them to learn how to avoid the pitfalls next time.
Murray eventually won in a tiebreak at the end of the fourth set; we all heaved a sigh of relief and can now relax and watch the Roger and Raffa show tomorrow!
But both players were winners tonight; it was a fantastically entertaining match! Murray may be headed into the fourth round, but we haven't seen the last of Ljubicic, I am sure of that...
Remember, never give up...if things don't pan out as you plan, change the plan!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Yep, in bed!
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