Ivanisevic Shoulders Load in Croatia’s Win

Goran Ivanisevic winced with each serve.

After shoulder surgery and a long layoff, he could have been excused for poor play against the United States in the Davis Cup.

Yet somehow, after losing the first two sets of Saturday’s doubles match, the 2001 Wimbledon champion and Ivan Ljubicic stunned James Blake and Mardy Fish to give Croatia a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

The Croatians’ rally for a 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4 victory pushed the U.S. squad to the brink of being eliminated in the first round for only the seventh time.

“Our backs are against the wall,” U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe said. “In these situations you learn quickly. But we are certainly capable of going out and winning two matches.”

Ljubicic can clinch victory for Croatia by beating Blake in today’s first singles match on the quick indoor court. If the American wins, Fish would play 18-year-old Mario Ancic to settle things. The U.S. has come back from 2-1 deficits to win five times.

A loss would be a real blow for the United States, which has won the Davis Cup a record 31 times, but hasn’t won since 1995. Croatia hasn’t even reached the competition’s final.

McEnroe has a bit of a makeshift squad. Blake, at 23, is the veteran of the team -- and his first Davis Cup match came 15 months ago. No one else on the roster had played Davis Cup singles before.

Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi opted not to play, while Andy Roddick is sidelined by a wrist injury.

Ivanisevic and Ljubicic embraced in a clumsy dance after winning and took turns lifting the other off the court. The usually animated Ivanisevic looked dazed when the match began, and confused at the end trying to figure out how to celebrate.

“This was the first time in my life I was lost, when you don’t know what you’re doing on the court. I was nervous, heavy -- no idea what to do,” said the 31-year-old Ivanisevic, who had surgery on his left shoulder nine months ago and hadn’t played top-level tennis since.

“I had great pain in my elbow, biceps, everywhere. But I said: ‘It doesn’t matter what happens, you have to finish this match.’ ”

Ivanisevic has made a career of this kind of drama. The win was the sixth in a row for him and Ljubicic in Davis Cup doubles -- the third after trailing 2-0 in sets.

“I forgot what it was like to play this kind of match. I was so happy, I didn’t know what to do, where to go where to jump,” Ivanisevic said.

Blake and Fish won the first two sets with little problem, never losing serve and taking advantage of Ivanisevic’s half-speed, poor serving. Ivanisevic was broken on his first service game as he failed to get any of his five first serves into play.

He was broken on his first service game of the second set.

But Croatia slowly turned things around, thanks largely to its duo’s serving. They had 22 aces to five for the Americans.

Blake and Fish blamed themselves for the loss, but complained about the 3,000 fans at the Dom Sportova. McEnroe noted the chair umpire and referee only made announcements in English to quiet the crowd -- never in Croatian.

“They were calling out during points, in between first and second serves, during serves, during overheads, whistling,” Blake said. “It just didn’t really have a place in a match that is supposed to be about goodwill and friendship.”

In other first-round Davis Cup action, 2002 runner-up France, Australia, Spain and Argentina all reached the quarterfinals by winning doubles matches Saturday for insurmountable 3-0 leads.

Australia eliminated Britain, which was without its top players, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski.