THE WORLD PORTAL

IVAN LJUBICIC

Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia crowned the men’s ‘BNP Paribas Open’ Championship by defeating American eighth seed Andy Roddick with the score 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) on Sunday. It was Ljubicic’s first master series crown. He defeated the world number two Novak Djokovic in the round of 16 and world number three Rafael Nadal in the semi final of this tournament. It is the first time that Ljubicic has beaten three top ten opponents in the same tournament.

BIOGRAPHY

Ivan Ljubicic was born on 19th March, 1979 in Banja Luka, SR Bosnia -Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia as the son of Hazira and Marko Ljubicic. He started his tennis career at the age of nine. In 1995, he won his first junior championship and won his first ATP points. He was played in the final of junior Wimbledon and in the semi final at Australian Open in 1997. Ljubicic turned into the professional tennis player in 1998 and until now, he has won nine ATP titles, but not a single Grand Slam title. His gained his first title at the Lyon tournament in 2001 by defeating Younes El Aynaoui in the final. His career best is that he reached in third rank in 2006 and in that year, he defeated every player in tennis except the world number one player Roger Federer. He won bronze doubles medal at Athens Olympics in 2004. He started 2010 season with a lost in the third round of the ‘Australian Open’ and another lost in the quarter final of the ‘Dubai Tennis Championships. Now, he won ‘BNP Paribas Open’ Championship by defeating American eighth seed Andy Roddick in the final. It was his first ever Masters Series trophy. By winning this trophy, he became the first Croatian to win the tournament, became the third 26th-ranked player to win this tournament, became the second-oldest winner and become the oldest first time winner of a Master Series 1000 event. In addition , his ranking position is risen into World No. 13 on today. He is married to Aida Shalabi, and they have a son Leonardo.

JELENA JANKOVIC

Former World no.1 Serbian tennis player Jelena Jankovic is the new owner of the ‘BNP Paribas Open’ Championship. In this Championship’s final, she defeated World no.2 player Caroline Wozniacki with the score 6-2 6-4 and gained her first Indian Wells title.

BIOGRAPHY

Jelena Jankovic was born on 28th February 28, 1985 in Belgrade, Serbia as the daughter of economists Veselin and Snezana Jankovic. She was introduced to tennis by her elder brother and fitness coach Marko at the age of 9.  She turned into the professional tennis player in 2000, and she showed wonderful performance in tennis at the junior level. She won ‘junior Australian Open Championship’ in 2001. In 2003, she reached in 90th rank position by winning the first ‘ITF title’ in Dubai. In 2004 season, she defeated top twenty players including Nadia Petrova  Vera Zvonareva, Patty Schnyder and Paola Suarez and finished that season with rank no 28 in the world. Jankovic gained her greatest achievement in her tennis career in 2008. At the end of that year, she was the World no 1 tennis player, and she remained that position until she was overtaken by Serena Williams on February, 2009. She is the first No. 1 tennis player  in the history of the WTA tour who has not yet won a singles Grand Slam title. Now, she is ranked World No.9 position. In addition, she has reached the singles final of the ‘US Open’ and the singles semifinals of the ‘Australian Open’ and the ‘French Open’. In 2007, she won the ‘Wimbledon mixed doubles title’ with British partner Jamie Murray and she became the first Serbian player to win a Grand Slam Title. Jankovic is often regarded as one of the fittest and toughest players in women’s tennis. She is expert in all surfaces. Her stamina is incredible and she can play more matches than any other women tennis player in the world. “Jelenin svet” is a documentary about her life, which features Jankovic and other notable players such as Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic. She was the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Serbia alongside Ana Ivanovic, Aleksandar Djordjevic and Emir Kusturica in 2007. In addition, she had made endorsement deals with ‘Reebok’ sportswear, ‘Anta Sports’, ‘Prince Sports’, ‘Aqua Viva Hydroactive’ Water, etc. .