Croatia and Romania are all square at the end of the first day of their Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Quarterfinal tie. Croatia's No. 1 Ivan Ljubicic made short work of Victor Hanescu, 63 62 76(3) in one hour and 47 minutes. Earlier Andrei Pavel gave Romania the lead, winning a three hour 40 minute thriller 16 64 46 63 64, against Mario Ancic who fired 31 aces, 25 more than the Romanian, but it was not enough to take him through. Just like Ancic, Ljubicic made a dream start, but unlike Ancic he just never gave his opponent a chance. The first two sets were some of his best tennis this season, similar to the tennis he played at the beginning of the year when he reached four finals, losing three of those finals to Roger Federer. "I started in fifth gear. Hanescu tends to be very dangerous if you let him get into the match." This was their fifth meeting, Ljubicic had won all four of their previous meetings, but some of them were tough. Hanescu held match points last time they played in Nottingham. This time, apart from moments in the third set, it went all Ljubicic's way. In the first set Ljubicic dominated early, breaking in the second game. Throughout the set he lost only 14 points on serve, fired 19 aces, won 92% on first serve, and took three out of seven break point chances. Hanescu had no break pionts and never made it to deuce. "When I play like this, like first two sets, there are not many players who can beat me. It was a great day, the only thing I'm sorry is Mario. He played a great match, but few points here and there made the difference. Maybe he wanted it to much," said Ljubicic. The third set was a little more open, Ljubicic had chances to finish it off earlier, but Hanescu came back from 15:40 down in the ninth game. Ljubicic steadied and dominated the tiebreak with two early mini breaks that took him to (4:1), before finishing the set 76(3) and taking his Davis cup tiebreak record to 12-10. Croatia's Niki Pilic, the old Davis cup warrior, as a player and even more captain did not have many regrets. "Ancic made a great start, if he made it to 4:1 in the second set, he could have won in straight. Ljubicic came out and played a great match, Hanescu never had a chance. Doubles? Ivan and Mario won a medal in Athens, but it's different in Davis cup matches. Everything is open, and as I always say; when you start 0-1, the best result at the end of the day is 1-1. So, we'll take it and go on." Hanescu was dissapointed with the result, "This is not my surface. I started slow, it was too hot for me. No rhythm on serve or base line. Third set saw better, played some more time on the net, but that's not my game. I made a few mistakes that decided the tie-break." Captain Adrian Marcu was also not willing to give any clues about his doubles line-up, "Both matches started almost the same, but the difference was, Pavel came back, Hanescu could not. The way the second singles went, 1-1 is ok. Nothing to regret. Doubles will be tough, Sunday also. Who will play doubles? You will see on Saturday." But with the tie level after Friday's play, the doubles on Saturday could well have a massive bearing on which of these two nations advances to the Davis Cup semifinals. --

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