Youzhny puts crown on perfect week

Russian No. 22 thumps Ljubicic for third career title

FROM THE ABN AMRO IN ROTTERDAM – Mikhail Youzhny bested Ivan Ljubicic 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday in his first win over the big-serving Croat after losing all of their six previous meetings.

The '06 US Open semifinalist immediately broke serve and put in another break at 4-2 to close out the first set. In the second set, Youzhny pounced on Ljubicic’ service game at 2-all, breaking on love with an excellent backhand passing shot. While the Croat managed to up his game and start hitting winners with his powerful backhand, he was unable to put real pressure on his opponent. Youzhny's serving was a key to victory, as the 24-year-old Russian banged 14 aces and didn't face a single break point.

After beating No. 12 Tomas Berdych, Dutch wild card Robin Haase, No. 15 David Ferrer and No. 14 Novak Djokovic, the Russian capped a perfect week with a dominant win over No. 8 Ljubicic. “It looked maybe easy, but it’s never easy,” he said after ending the match in just over an hour. “Ivan was not in great shape and not as sharp as usual.”

Ljubicic was not serving well, and looked a little dead-beat from his three-hour epic match against Nikolay Davydenko on Saturday night. “Yesterday’s match just killed me,” said the 27-year-old, who was also a runner-up in Rotterdam in 2005, falling to Roger Federer in a third-set tiebreak. “Three hours with Nikolay is like six hours with someone else. There really wasn’t enough time for me to recover. My energy level was really low, and my arm was sour. But all the credit to him. He had a tough draw and deserves the win. I think this year he is going to do really well,” Ljubicic said.

Youzhny will return to the Top 20 on Monday, closing in on his career best No.15, which he held in January 2005. “I don’t want to think about my ranking,” he said. “I think about my game. I need to improve my serve because I need to serve like today in every match. If I play good, the results will come.”

The Russian, who became a Davis Cup hero in his country in 2002 by beating Paul-Henri Mathieu in the deciding rubber in the final against France, was set back by several injuries throughout his career, but says he is now in great shape. “After the injuries it was tough coming back to the same level. Now, I feel good. In practice I beat very good players, but I couldn’t show it in the match. At the US Open [last year], for the first time I could show it in a match. I hope after this title, more titles will come.”

LUBY ALMOST LIVED UP TO 'DRINKS ON THE HOUSE'
Should Ljubicic have won, he promised all of the 8,000 fans in Ahoy stadium a drink, just like he did before losing to Federer in the '05 final. “I will have to come back next year, because I really want to pay this drink,” the Croat said with a smile on his face.

The former No. 3 also reacted to the ATP’s new plans to start suspending players who withdraw from mandatory events as of 2009. “Increasing the penalties and just trying to force the players to play is not going to make it better,” he said. “I think the schedule should be a little lighter.” Richard Krajicek, tournament director in Rotterdam, added later: “The problem is that when you start to suspend players, you harm other tournaments scheduled in the next weeks. They lose their top players which doesn’t seem right.”

Krajicek says he expects his event to become a 500-point tournament in the new 2009 structure, where current Masters Series events will become 1,000-point tournaments, and Grand Slams will be worth 2,000 points. “We are aiming at the 500-point category,” the ’96 Wimbledon champion stated. “I think we’ll get that status, because Etienne [de Villiers] told me this is the best indoor tournament he has ever visited, and he’s been telling everyone how much he enjoyed his day on site.” The future calendar will include eight to 12 of these 500-point tournaments, compared to eight 1000-point events, one short of the current nine Masters Series.