Nadal out, Ljubicic gets big birthday present a day late

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Ivan Ljubicic, 31-years-old as of Friday and the 20th-seeded player at the BNP Paribas Open with a good nature and powerful strokes, served 17 aces in sending home defending champion and third-seeded Rafael Nadal, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1), today in a men’s semifinal.

It was only Ljubicic’s second win over Nadal in seven tries and the first since 2005. The last player to win this event at the age of 30 or higher was Andre Agassi (in 2001), and Ljubicic will get his chance Sunday against the winner of Saturday’s second semifinal between Andy Roddick and Robin Soderling.

Even before his 17 aces Saturday, Ljubicic had led the tournament with 49 aces and he had already taken out the tournament’s second-seeded player, Novak Djokovic. A small gathering of Croatian fans, seated high at Stadium 1 court at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, sang loudly and waved the Croatian checkerboard-patterned flag as Ljubicic kept his calm after Nadal raced to a first-set win and seemed headed to a routine victory. But Ljubicic got a sudden service break in the ninth game of the second set to go up 5-4 and then held with the help of a 133-mph ace.

The players exchanged service breaks to start the third set -- Nadal was broken first but he responded immediately. But by the third set, Ljubicic had gained confidence. He shook off every error (mostly on his backhand side), seemingly confident he could keep hurting Nadal with his big serve. And the tiebreak was all about Ljubicic’s power. He had a 138-mph ace, a huge backhand winner and then a forehand winner to go up 4-1 quickly in the tiebreak.

-- Diane Pucin