Novak Djokovic wears down in loss to Ivan Ljubicic at Indian Wells

It all caught up to Novak Djokovic on Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open, all the extraordinary effort he had put in to leading his country, Serbia, over the United States in the Davis Cup 12 days ago, flying across nine time zones to get to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and trying to play to his seeding, as the second-ranked player at the BNP Paribas Open and the second-best player in the world.

On Wednesday, his efforts unraveled as his 30-year-old opponent, Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, uncorked too many big serves for the heavy-legged Djokovic. Ljubicic, who turns 31 on Friday, made it to the quarterfinals here for the second year in a row with his 7-5, 6-3 win over Djokovic.

Among those also moving on to the men’s quarterfinals were seventh-seeded American Andy Roddick, who had seven unforced errors in the first set of his 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over Austria’s Jurgen Melzer, and fourth-seeded Andy Murray, who led Nicolas Almagro 6-2, 1-0 before Almagro retired with a foot injury.

Roddick needed five match points, but his accurate serving finally put too much pressure on Melzer.

Next up for Roddick is Spaniard Tommy Robredo, who beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, 7-5, 0-6, 6-4. Roddick is 10-0 against the 18th-seeded Robredo (he now has an 11-0 record against Melzer). A day earlier, Baghdatis had conquered No. 1-ranked Roger Federer, but the 27th-seeded player from Cyprus seemed to be missing some spring in his legs Wednesday.

He also was unwilling to take much comfort from his dominant record against Robredo.

“The thing I’ve been preaching all week is, you’ve got to start over on a daily basis. There’s no entitlement because I’ve beaten him before,” Roddick said.

Defending champion and third-seeded Rafael Nadal was happy with the way he moved and with his result, a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win over American John Isner. Nadal and Isner had never played, and Nadal was filled with praise for his big-serving, 6-foot-9 opponent.

“If he improves just a little bit more,” Nadal said of the 15th-seeded Isner, “it’s going to be very difficult to stop him.”

Also moving into the men’s quarterfinals was sixth-seeded Robin Soderling, who had little trouble with slow-moving and ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Soderling won, 6-3, 6-4, and in the quarterfinals will play Murray.

While Djokovic’s loss was the biggest stunner of the day, it also was a minor surprise when fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva lost to fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, 6-4, 6-3.

Radwanska, who became the first woman to advance to Friday’s semifinals, will play second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, the Danish teen who made it to the final of the U.S. Open in September. Wozniacki beat 18th-seeded Zheng Jie, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

Ljubicic had lost five times in a row to Djokovic, and he didn’t take full credit for beating Djokovic this time. Ljubicic said earlier this year that he would not play in the Davis Cup because of the extra matches’ physical toll.

“He has to be 100% fit if he wants to win this tournament,” Ljubicic said. “He was struggling in [a tournament] in Dubai. He played long matches there; after that, he went to Serbia for Davis Cup and then traveled here.”

Ljubicic, who plays 21st-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina in a quarterfinal, also was happy to have his match against Djokovic on a secondary court instead of in Stadium 1.

“I was surprised,” Ljubicic said, “because he’s No. 2 in the world. I was happy when I found out we were playing out there because I’ve played a lot of matches on that court and I’m sure he didn’t. It was maybe a little advantage on my side.”

Djokovic said he never found his comfort zone in this tournament.

“I had a very tiring couple of weeks coming from Davis Cup, which was emotionally very exhausting for me,” Djokovic said.

Roddick said he was sympathetic to Djokovic’s efforts over the past month, saying what Djokovic had done — playing hard matches in Dubai, Davis Cup on clay courts and then coming to these hard courts — “was brutal.

“That’s a lot of emotional and physical baggage the last couple of weeks.”

Life isn’t quite so difficult for Roddick, who has decided not to play in the Davis Cup this year. Though Thursday might be busy. Roddick said it will be a juggling act, finding time for tennis practice and nine holes of golf. He was kidding. Maybe there won’t be golf.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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