Ljubicic & Jankovic Persevere at Indian Wells.

Jankovic Glides to Victory at Indian Wells (AP)

In a fitting end to a wild Indian Wells event, surprise winners figured big in the final matches as Jelena Jankovic easily took out Caroline Woznicaki 6-2, 6-4 while Ivan Ljubicic finally won his first ATP Masters 1000 event by holding off Andy Roddick in two tiebreaks 7-6(3), 7-6 (5).

The women’s final was pretty much a done deal from the opening game as Jankovic’s pace and depth on her groundies, especially her favorite two-hander down the line, took Wozniacki off her game the whole match. J.J. jumped out to 4-0 lead before Wozniacki finally found a way to win her service game to 4-1. Jankovic lost her serve but quickly broke back and by then the first set was over.

Wozniacki lost her serve early again but managed to find her way into the rallies more. She tried slowing down the pace of her shots but that didn’t seem to help nor did her forehand which she kept overhitting to keep up with Jankovic’s depth. Jankovic never looked rushed or worried during the whole match and she closed it out with style 6-4.

The men’s final saw both Roddick and Ljubicic save break points in both of their opening service games before quickly finding their range. Despite some extended rallies and forays to net won by both men, it soon became a question of could Roddick force the Croat off of his game plan of simply staying back and hitting groundstrokes. Roddick had a set point on Ljubicic’s serve, but it was quickly snuffed out by the Croat. Eventually the first set went into a tiebreak and although Ljubicic only hit 55% of his first serves, he came up with big serves when needed to take the first set 7-6.

The second set was more of the same as both men continued to serve big mixed in with some nice rallies. Roddick increasingly grew frustrated at not being able to attack Ljubicic’s serve. He finally got a chance at 4-4 where Roddick found a way to get two more break points only to have Ljubicic hit big serves to save his game. Eventually another tiebreak ensued and it was Ljubicic who found enough speed to hit a passing shot off of a Roddick half volley that gave the Croat the early edge 2-1. Despite getting tight serving for it at 6-3 by hitting a double fault allowing Roddick to get things to 5-6, Ljubicic found another big serve to seal the win.

This is the first time Jankovic and Ljubicic have won the Indian Wells event. Despite the loss, Caroline Wozniacki will now be ranked No.2 on the WTA tour starting Monday, a career best for the Danish player.

Tagged as: Andy Roddick, Caroline Wozniacki, Ivan Ljubicic, Jelena Jankovic