Croatian star Ivan Ljubicic kept hold of his nerves at crucial moments to record a magnificient three set win over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in the first quarterfinal match of the day at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, an ATP World Tour  500 event being played here in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Click here to re-live the excitement of this duel.

Ljubicic made a surprisingly bad start to the match and lost his serve in the first game to give Baghdatis a lead which he could not consolidate and lost his serve twice to give away the first set 4-6.

The second set saw the best out of both players who held their serves gallantly to push the matters into a deciding tie-break which Baghdatis won after saving a match point at 5-6.

The decider saw Ljubicic get a crucial break in the seventh game which he failed to consolidate by losing his own serve immediately. Baghdatis once again led the Croatian 6-5 but things again went into a tie-break where Ljubicic kept hold of his nerves and error count to complete the marathon 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(4) win.

Earlier today, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got a ticket to the semifinals when Czech Tomas Berdych pulled out of the quarterfinal match due to illness from flu.