A New Meaning to ‘Winning Streak’

You just never know what you are going to find in the locker of a professional tennis player.

Tennis balls. Sweaty clothes.... A naked man.

That’s what happened to Ivan Ljubicic, the hero of the Croatian Davis Cup team, last week at the tour stop in Miami. Little Michael Llodra of France, wearing nothing but a smile, had crammed himself into Ljubicic’s locker. The rest of the players in the room were in on the joke.

Llodra was said to have told Ljubicic, “I’m trying to get positive energy from you. You’re winning a lot of matches this year.”

Ljubicic was impressed, as well as taken aback, by the feat.

“I mean, the locker, it’s not the big locker, it’s small locker,” he said. “Now when I’m opening my locker, I’m opening really slowly. After this, I don’t know what I’m going to find in there.”

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Trivia time: Who was the last player to defeat tennis star Roger Federer of Switzerland in the final of a tournament?

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Defense, first: The Mets’ Mike Piazza was lamenting the NHL lockout the other day and offered this little-known fact to Associated Press: The first game he saw in person featured the California Golden Seals.

Piazza also said he could have been effective on the blue line.

“I truly believe that if I played about six months and got my wind, that I could be a pretty good defenseman,” he told AP.

“I could move the bodies around a little bit in front of the net, though I’ve got to work on skating backwards a little bit. I’m like [Montreal’s] Sheldon [Souray], with a better shot.”

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Hoop mystery: Bob Young of the Arizona Republic kept wondering about the identity of “the Legend” in the Coca-Cola commercial that has been running during the NCAA basketball tournament.

Young found out that the guy who takes a youngster to school with a dunk was none other than Nigel Miguel. Miguel played for UCLA in the ‘80s and was the Pacific 10 Conference defensive player of the year in 1985.

Miguel’s star turn-and-spin move in the commercial drew a comment from another legend at a youth tournament.

“I saw Michael Jordan at that AAU tournament,” Miguel told the Republic. “His son was playing in the 14-and-under division, and first thing he said to me was, ‘You still got a little left, huh?’

“I told him, ‘Only for TV.’ ”

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Red card: Carlos Alberto of Brazil, the coach of Azerbaijan’s soccer team, was seeing, well, red. He was riled after getting word that England striker Michael Owen thought he could score five goals against Alberto’s team.

England won, 2-0, and Alberto erupted afterward, calling Owen “a midget.”

“Who is Michael Owen?” he asked reporters. “He plays for Real Madrid, but he’s on the bench for every game. He didn’t score one goal.”

True. One problem, though. Owen denied ever having said such a thing.

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Trivia answer: Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, who beat Federer at Gstaad, Switzerland, in July 2003 in five sets.

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And finally: AC Milan Coach Carlo Ancelotti, on showing restraint in pursuing another star soccer player: “The Brazilian is a great player. But we have many great players at Milan. Signing Ronaldinho would be overkill.”