Losing on Court of Last Resort

Next stop for the best Davis Cup team American tennis can assemble: Pakistan?

A-teams aren’t supposed to be looking at potential itineraries with destinations such as India or Pakistan. Cricket, yes. Tennis, no.

Should that happen, the responsible party won’t be difficult to identify. He’s a bald guy with a big serve, an even bigger heart, and a name -- Ivan Ljubicic -- that will be forever etched in the consciousness of Andre Agassi, Bob and Mike Bryan and Andy Roddick.

He personally toppled the U.S. Davis Cup team almost like dominos, in the above order. The final domino to fall was Roddick, and Ljubicic saved his best for the last, the most important moment of this first-round match between the United States and Croatia.

Ljubicic clinched Croatia’s historic 3-2 victory, defeating Roddick, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11), 6-7 (7), 6-2, on Sunday at the Home Depot Center in Carson in front of 6,584. It was the first time since the Davis Cup began in 1900 that the U.S. lost a first-round match on American soil.

“Well, it certainly hurts a lot,” U.S. Captain Patrick McEnroe said. “After getting in the final last year, starting off at home with our best team, it’s disappointing. I certainly didn’t expect it.”

It started with Ljubicic’s rout of Agassi on Day 1 and ended with him blasting an ace past Roddick on match point, giving Croatia an insurmountable 3-1 lead. The thrilling, twisting five-setter lasted nearly four hours, finishing under the lights. Bob Bryan beat Roko Karanusic, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, in the final, meaningless singles match.

Said Roddick: “There’s no worse feeling than losing a match in Davis Cup in our sport, especially when your teammates are counting on you.”

He has plenty of company. In fact, no American has been able to beat Ljubicic in Davis Cup competition. He is 6-0 vs. the United States, having had a hand in three points in Croatia’s victory in 2003 at Zagreb.

But this was supposed to be different for the U.S., at home, with the return of Agassi, his first time back in the fold in nearly five years, supposedly serving as motivational fodder.

Instead, Ljubicic was the man of the matches. In between his singles victories, he and Mario Ancic beat twins Bob and Mike Bryan, who had never lost in Davis Cup, in doubles. Ljubicic even wandered into the media center and appeared to be picking up press notes and statistics for the team on Friday.

If necessary, he probably would have driven the team bus.

“I imagine that it’s going to be huge, obviously. Not only home, I think all around the world it is going to be big news,” Ljubicic said. “To beat Andre, Bryans and Roddick in three days, I think that’s a great effort. I realize that. When I came here, I was thinking if I could win one singles, just to keep up the momentum and just to keep the confidence in. I did all the way, so it is amazing.”

The edge-of-the-seat moments were many against Roddick: There was the 24-point third-set tiebreaker, in which Roddick squandered a lead of 4-1 and three set points. There was the fourth-set tiebreaker, in which Ljubicic saved four set points before double faulting on the fifth to send it to a fifth set.

The final set was Ljubicic’s 12th set in three days, and the momentum seemed to be on Roddick’s side. But Roddick was broken in the opening game, at love, and lost the first eight points of the set. He got down another break in the fifth game.

At the changeover, with Ljubicic leading, 4-1, the Croatian needed treatment on his knee.

No matter. “I could go forever, I had the feeling,” Ljubicic said.

It was his first victory against Roddick in a completed match, and it was also Roddick’s first Davis Cup loss at home.

Ljubicic said he had “no words” to describe his feelings. But he found some, and spoke about the difference between winning the three matches in Croatia two years ago, and here in Carson.

“Huge difference. There we played at home. For all respect, [it] was James Blake and Mardy Fish. Has nothing to compare with Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Bryan brothers in L.A. I mean, it was incredible.”

He made a point of praising Agassi.

“After the match, Andre came in our locker room and he said that he was privileged to watch this match, and enjoy these moments ... enjoy this moment because it doesn’t last forever,” said Ljubicic, who added that coaches Darren Cahill and Dean Goldfine were with Agassi. “I really appreciate that from him and I think he’s a great person.”

This may have been Agassi’s final Davis Cup appearance. The draw to avoid relegation from the World Group will be held in May, and the match will be played in September. Spain, which beat the United States in the Cup final last year, is in a similar situation, having lost to Slovakia.

The U.S. could be matched against Pakistan, or India, or another country. Wherever it plays, it would be hard to imagine Agassi would participate in that match after the U.S. Open.

“Who knows? We have to wait a pretty long time to go at it again, which is disappointing,” Roddick said.

“We felt we had a pretty good opportunity, and we were so excited. You know, that’s definitely sad, as well.”