Defeat sharpens Ancic's will to win

The manner of his departure may have been unedifying, but Mario Ancic's performance at the Australian Open left little doubt that he will be rattling more cages in the not-too-distant future.

Ancic, the Croatian teenager heralded as the new Goran Ivanisevic, was dismissed 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 yesterday by Juan Carlos Ferrero, the no 4 seed. However, he had reached the fourth round here at Melbourne Park while playing in only his third grand slam. His second-round victory over Sjeng Schalken, the no 16 seed and US Open semi-finalist, was the first five-set win of his career.

The Croatian's youth, talent and enthusiasm has won him plenty of fans. He loves tennis and never seems to stop smiling, even when he loses. Yesterday he was still smiling after being crushed by the Spaniard. "I don't think I did anything very bad, it was just that Ferrero played a great match," he explained. "Maybe I gave him a few free points at the start, but he was just better than me.

"I'm happy with my performance here and it's been good motivation for me to work harder and move up to the next level." The 18-year-old Split resident caused a minor sensation at Wimbledon last year when, playing in his first grand slam as a qualifier, he beat the no 7 seed, Roger Federer, on Centre Court in the first round before losing to Jan Vacek in the second. At the US Open, he retired in the fifth set of his first-round match against Dominik Hrbaty with leg cramps.

Last season Ancic improved his world ranking by 187 places, finishing the year at no 113. He was ranked no 88 on his debut appearance in Melbourne, the first grand slam where he was a direct entrant. He prepared for the tournament by practising for 11 hours a day for three weeks in Florida.

Comparisons with Ivanisevic, the enfant terrible of men's tennis, are irresistible. The two are both from Split, and have practised together since Ancic was ten. They have similar mannerisms on court, a similar way of expressing themselves and the same fiery temperament.

Ancic said last week: "In Croatia, we are from the same town. Like all the guys there, we are very temperamental. Maybe now I'm much calmer. But there's always this temper inside. Like when I started, I was really nervous, always throwing the rackets everywhere. This hunger to win, it's always inside us."

He also passed on news of Ivanisevic, saying the older man telephoned him after the Schalken match and told him his shoulder was recovering well after surgery. Ivanisevic said he was "really ready to play, hungry to play ... in the best shape of his life," Ancic said.

Yesterday Ferrero, the French Open runner-up, took just one hour, 41 minutes to beat Ancic and reach the quarter-finals in Melbourne for the first time. Despite his world ranking, he has a modest record in grand slams other than Roland Garros and has been working to improve his hardcourt game.

The Spaniard said afterwards that he had played "a complete match" and warned his rivals that he did not fear any of those still chasing the men's title, including the world no 1, Lleyton Hewitt, and the three times Australian Open champion, Andre Agassi.

Ferrero next meets South Africa's Wayne Ferreira, who defeated Sargis Sargsian, of Armenia, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Agassi had an easy path to the quarter-finals when Argentina's Guillermo Coria withdrew with a foot injury as the American led 6-1, 3-1.