Now the U.S. Must Start From Scratch

The U.S. Davis Cup team came to a place it had never been and was blindsided by the monstrous serving of a guy who’d once been driven to tears and ostracized by teammates because of his ineptitude in a Cup defeat.

The elevator is going down for captain Patrick McEnroe’s team, which landed in the basement Sunday after the weekend’s 4-1 loss to Croatia, a country of 4 million where, if your name doesn’t end in “itch” (ic), you aren’t a tennis player.

But there is a sub-basement, too, a nowhere land the U.S. could reach by losing the relegation match scheduled for September, a week after the U.S. Open. The opposition won’t be known until April, also when Croatia tries to beat Spain in the quarterfinals.

A relegation victory would mean safely returning to the World Group of 16 from which the U.S. has been banished for this year by the “itch” boys -- Ivan Ljubicic, the revived Goran Ivanisevic, Mario Ancic and captain Niki Pilic.

But a relegation defeat, such as the one in 1987 at the hands of Germany, would mean tramping through the wilderness next year, excluded from hanging out with the Cup eligibles at least until 2005.

You may have heard of Ivanisevic -- the post-surgery retread, re-emerging in the hope of reappearing at Wimbledon, where he won in 2001 -- and Pilic, an ex-French Open finalist who captained three Cup-winning teams for Germany before returning home. Maybe even former U.S. clay court champ Zeljko Franulovic and 18-year-old Ancic, who knocked a favorite, Roger Federer, out of Wimbledon last summer.

But how about the man with an unpronounceable name and, for three days, an unapproachable serve: Ivan Ljubicic? He’s the guy who put the U.S. on the downward elevator with two singles victories and a doubles win, finishing up with the clincher over James Blake, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3.

You wouldn’t want to meet up with No. 62-ranked Ljubicic, a sinewy 6 feet 4 and 185 pounds, in a place called Hall Dom Sportova in downtown Zagreb, a smoky hotbox about the size of a small-town high school gym.

Ljubicic’s ballroom was a hard-paved crimson carpet as slick and fast as any dance floor, where he could show his stuff, sending balls skipping and skidding past his adversaries: 72 aces in three matches.

This was not Center Court, Wimbledon. But if you’re a Croat with a racket, like Ljubicic, you love the audio racket the boisterous crowd made Sunday because (other than a few stray, beleaguered Americans) the crowd loves you, and is performing for your benefit.

It was a tradeoff for the 23-year-old Ljubicic because he was performing for them, having almost forgotten a weekend in Finland six years ago. “Finland -- yes Finland! -- beat us, and that time I lost all three matches,” he said. “My teammates wouldn’t talk to me on the way home, and I cried on the plane.”

Hardly anybody had heard of Ljubicic then. Maybe he would never have made any sort of name if his parents hadn’t decided a decade ago to flee their home town, Banja Luka in Bosnia.

“We are Croats,” he says, “and there were quite a few Croat families there. But the Serbs were in control, and Croats were vanishing. Just disappeared. People we knew. It was getting frightening.

“My mother -- she’s Muslim -- my brother and I got the last plane out of Banja Luka at that time. To Belgrade. Then a long bus trip to Opatija in Croatia where we were put in a refugee camp, an old hotel, for six months. We didn’t hear from my father for a long time, but, happily, he escaped and rejoined us. We finally got an apartment in Rijeka in a trade for the home we left behind -- which was worth about 15 times the apartment. But we were out, that was the main thing.”

The Americans in Zagreb, a shabby yet elegant city still recovering from the war, couldn’t get out of the way of Ljubicic. He was there at every twist and turn, sprinkling aces and service winners like salt on fries as he fried America’s hopes of avoiding a second first-round loss in three years.

Andy Roddick, having badly bruised his right wrist in the Australian Open, was unavailable, and Mardy Fish got the other singles job along with Blake. Fish was aced 30 times in a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 pounding by Ljubicic.

Blake looked sharp in beating Ancic, 6-1, 6-2, 7-5, for a first-day split. But he began to wear down mentally when he and Fish had a great shot at the go-ahead doubles point, two sets ahead and three points from victory in the third set tie-breaker with Blake serving at 4-5. But he and Fish bungled volleys, and the U.S. thrust was finished, even though it wouldn’t be official for a little while longer.

Ivanisevic, 11 months up the road from rotator cuff surgery, wasn’t sure his arm would stay on, but insisted on this shakedown cruise.

“I had to play for the people,” he said. “The USA doesn’t come to Croatia every day. At first I was awful. I had pain in my left elbow, my biceps, I forgot how to play. I was stiff, nervous” ... and popping pain pills like Life Savers.

Ljubicic kept encouraging him, imitating the bygone Ivanisevic with his own aces. In the third set Ivanisevic caught on and caught up, and they polished off the U.S. team, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4.

That left it up to Blake, at No. 24 the highest ranked in the series, to force a decisive fifth match by beating Ljubicic. But he wasn’t up to it, suffering a classic case of Davis Cup wobbles. The hyper-patriotic (but not hostile) crowd, an overflow of 3,000, some jamming the aisles, got under his skin.

“I was tentative,” Blake said. “I’d never played on a third day when we were still in contention.”

“Tentative” is tennispeak for doubting and drifting. After getting the only break of Ljubicic, who held serve 50 of 51 games, Blake was up, 4-3, in the third and serving. Said McEnroe: “I thought James was in control.”

He was soon out of control. His pep and forehand went on leave. A careless eighth game was lost in four points, three immediate errors capped by Ljubicic’s forehand winner. Two games later Blake let two game points slide by, missed seven first serves and twice double faulted meekly. The set ended and so did he. Ljubicic barreled down the stretch, hurdled three break points, swatted aces Nos. 28 and 29.

A country where unemployment is around 25%, and the best seat in the house was considered pricey at $7, was mighty happy as Blake hit his last forehand into the net.

“We didn’t think our bid for the Cup [last won in 1995] would end so soon,” McEnroe said. “We’re disappointed, not dispirited.”