Croatians win marathon 16-14 third set for doubles bronze
Aug. 20, 2004
SportsLine.com wire reports

"Croatia is such a small country, so this is huge. Any medal is huge," Ljubicic said.

Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic celebrate victory after their men's doubles finals bronze medal match against Indias Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 20, 2004. Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic won 7-5 4-6 14-13. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic celebrate victory after their men's doubles finals bronze medal match against Indias Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 20, 2004. Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic won 7-5 4-6 14-13. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Mario Ancic (news) (R) and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia celebrate with their country's flag after winning the bronze medal in the men's doubles tournament at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 20, 2004. Ancic and Ljubicic defeated Indian pair Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes 7-6, 4-6, 16-14. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
 

ATHENS, Greece -- Excited about winning a bronze medal, Mario Ancic tried flinging his racket into the stands. It fell a few feet short, rattling on the court.

Perfectly understandable: Croatia's Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic had just played four hours before finally pulling out a 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 16-14 victory over India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in a match that started Friday night and ended the next day at 1:05 a.m. About 300 fans stuck it out on Court 1.

While Ancic was preparing to serve at 14-14, one spectator shouted out: "Time to go home!" The Indian duo went ahead love-40 in that game, but Ancic kept his team in it by winning five straight points with an ace, three volleys and a service winner.

"If we had broken there," Paes said, "that's all she wrote."

In the next game, the Croatians converted their fourth match point -- an hour after their first two arrived while leading 8-7. They had another match point when Paes served in the 26th game of the third set.

The marathon match ended when Ancic smacked a forehand that Paes volleyed into the net, allowing the Croatians to break Paes' serve.

The match was this tight: Each team won 164 points.

Ancic leaped into Ljubicic's arms for a hug, then they took off their shirts and threw them to a group of Croatian fans who stayed right to the end, chanting, clapping and banging their feet on the metal bleachers.

The cheering was a bit overzealous for Paes' taste. Serving at 13-12, he hit a backhand near the line and a voice from that section of the stands yelled, "Out!"

Play continued, and Paes dumped a volley into the net. He pointed in the direction of the Croatian group and yelled, "Shut up!" Bhupathi went over to complain to chair umpire Javier Moreno, who intoned: "Please, for both teams, be quiet."

It's the third Olympic tennis medal in Croatia's history, all bronzes, and second medal of these games.

"Croatia is such a small country, so this is huge. Any medal is huge," Ljubicic said.

He and Ancic, a singles semifinalist at Wimbledon last month, were playing just their fourth tournament together.

Bhupathi and Paes have been on-and-off doubles partners for years, winning three Grand Slam titles: the French Open in 1999 and 2000, and Wimbledon in 1999. They split for good, it appeared, in May 2002, but recently teamed up again in hopes of winning an Olympic medal.

"With all the work we've done in the past month, going back empty-handed - it's mind-boggling," Paes said. "I don't think we've had this much disappointment in a long time."

Shortly after the match ended, Ljubicic received a text message on his cell phone from 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic.

"He said he lost 100 years of his life watching this," Ljubicic said.

It wasn't the longest final set in an Olympic men's doubles match, though. Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde of Australia beat Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands 18-16 in the third set of a semifinal at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

In Saturday's gold medal match, Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu of Chile will play Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler of Germany.

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