Ivan Ljubicic took advantage of familiar surroundings to post his second win of the 2006 season.

The top-seeded Croatian made short work of qualifier Stefan Koubek, defeating the Austrian 6-3 6-4 on Sunday to win the PBZ Zagreb Indoors.

"It's fantastic to win in Zagreb," Ljubicic said. "Goran (Ivanisevic) won three Croatian Indoors so I kept the Croatian streak alive and I hope the tournament will stay in Croatian hands for a long time.

"It's special to play in front of your home crowd with everyone cheering for me. It is very, very nice."

The fifth-ranked player in the world, Ljubicic also won the event in Chennai, India, before losing to Marcos Baghdatis in five sets in the Australian Open quarter-finals.

He is 14-1 in 2006.

One break per set was enough for Ljubicic to secure victory.

He broke the Austrian's serve at 4-3 in the first set and 1-1 in the second.

Koubek had one break point in each set but could not convert either.

"I'm really, really glad that I won this in straight sets because Stefan is really a very difficult player to play against," Ljubicic said.

"He had beaten me on this surface already.

"I really wanted to keep this short and I played better on the important points."

The victory by Ljubicic ended a dazzling run for Koubek, who advanced to his first ATP Tour final in three years with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 victory over British veteran Tim Henman in the semis.

"I was too nervous today, I don't know why," Koubek said. "I was a little bit tight and didn't play my best tennis.

"Both sets were very similar, I got broken very early, too early.

"As soon as Ivan is a break up he is very confident on his serve, which he showed today.

"But anyway I'm so happy about the past 10 days.

"Coming out of qualies and playing finals is great.

"If someone would have told me this a week ago I would have laughed."

With the win, Ljubicic levelled the all-time series between the two at 3-3. Koubek prevailed in their last meeting two years ago in Basle, Switzerland.

Prior to this week, Koubek only had played a Challenger event in Wales, where he lost in the first round.