If this were a political thing, perhaps there would be more antagonism between Novak Djokovic, a Serb, and Ivan Ljubicic, a Croatian.

But each player has their own drama, independent of which country they play for.  In particular, Novak Djokovic, who came from nowhere in 2007 to be a solid number 3, and entered Dubai as world number 2, and yet seeded 2 because the draw came out before Roger Federer withdrew.

Djokovic still plays stretches of excellent tennis.  Last year, he was arguably the second best clay courter based on results.  Then, after the US Open, Djokovic also had a spate where he played well including beating Roger Federer in his hometown tournament at Basel.

But Djokovic hasn’t played the kind of tennis that lead him to two Slam semifinals in 2007 and a Slam final at the US Open the same year.  Djokovic found himself down two breaks and 6-2 after Ljubicic came out hitting the ball well while Djokovic struggled some.  Ljubicic, once ranked as high as number 3 in the world, had opportunities in the second set to break Djokovic, but failed to convert.  Djokovic eventually broke to win the second set, 6-4.

At this point, Ljubicic seemed dejected while Djokovic continued to play better and eventually won the third set going away, 6-0.

Djokovic is the defending champ, but many of the top seeds have fallen or didn’t arrive.  Federer, Murray, Davydenko are all out of the tournament.  Up next for Djokovic is Marcos Baghdatis who had a straight set win over German, Michael Berrer.  Berrer was the beneficiary of Davydenko retiring.

In the other half, Mikhail Youzhny beat Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets.  Tipsarevic had beaten Andy Murray in the previous round.  Youzhny plays Jurgen Melzer who beat Marin Cilic, the sixth seed, in two tight sets.  Dubai organizers have to be fretting that Youzhny is the only other seed besides Djokovic to make the semifinals.  What had promised to be Federer-Murray in one semis, and Djokovic-Davydenko in the other, has dwindled to only Djokovic as the top seed remaining.  As defending champ, he needs this title to avoid losing points.

Andy Murray, in his post-match interview, said that although he lost to Tipsarevic, he was using this match as a kind of practice.  Although the viewing public may feel they deserve a player’s best shot every time he goes out on court, most players, especially the best players, decide that some tournaments are more important than others.  Given his druthers, Murray may have skipped Dubai, but reeling on the criticism he took from skipping Marseille, Murray felt he had to show up and play a match or two.

Murray used the match against Tipsarevic to work on things he normally reserves for practice.  In particular, he tried to serve and volley more, avoid hitting too many slice backhands, and hit harder from the baseline.  Murray has long been criticized for playing too passive a game, and used the opportunity in match situation to play a riskier style.  Murray had a shot at winning the match, breaking back late in the third set to get on serve only to be broken in the next game and lose the match.

Murray pointed to playing well in Indian Wells.  His goal was to leave for Indian Wells approximately a week before the start of the tournament and make sure he gets acclimated to play in the US.  Murray had taken 10 days off without playing tennis.

Unlike American football, where teams are often playing hard just to make playoffs, tennis players have a handful of tournaments they want to do well in, and get to decide which tournaments they want to play and which they want to skip or even which tournaments they will work hard to win vs. which they don’t mind losing early.

Team sports generally don’t get that luxury.  They are forced to play game after game even if taking a break here and there would probably lead to higher quality games, or at the very least, the best players taking the field together.

Is Djokovic ready to defend his title?  We’ll see in the next few days!