Fish reels in fourth seed Ljubicic

MELBOURNE, Jan 15 (Reuters) Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic became the first major casualty on the opening day of the Australian Open, falling 4-6 7-6 6-4 6-4 to American Mardy Fish today.

The fourth seed, a quarter-finalist in 2006 and already a winner this year at Doha, struggled to match the unerring accuracy of the world number 42, who prevailed in two hours and 53 minutes on Vodafone Arena.

Nobody served more aces in 2006 than the big-serving Ljubicic, but Fish generally returned superbly, breaking in the opening games of the third and fourth sets before going on to tie his career record against the Croatian at 1-1.

Fish, who slipped as low as 341 in the rankings last year after a series of wrist operations, will play Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the second round at Melbourne Park.

REUTERS PDS RN1429