Players Under the Microscope / Barry Millns / 08 August 2008 /

Tennis commentator Barry Millns tells us all about big-serving 6ft 10 Ivo Karlovic, who having beat Roger Federer in Cincinatti last week has reached a career high of 22 in the ATP rankings. Keep an eye out for him when the US Open comes around.

For a 29 year-old man who has never reached the quarter-finals of a grand slam it seems unlikely that Ivo Karlovic will ever go on and win one. But for as long as the giant Croat continues to play professionally the leading contenders in any event he enters will be wary of meeting him.

Armed with a huge serve to go with his immense height of 6 feet 10 inches, he can bombard his way to victory. Just ask Roger Federer who lost to him last week in Cincinnati (without dropping his own serve) and who could suffer more heartache if they meet as they are seeded to do in the third round of the Olympic competition in Beijing.

So far this season Karlovic has struck 701 aces in 41 matches, averaging around 17 per match. Federer has served the second highest number in 2008 with 461 in 55 matches i.e. about 8 per match on average, which straight away shows the kind of advantage Karlovic has over the rest in that department, while Andy Roddick in third place with 453 aces from 33 matches is averaging close to 14.

It is not just the speed of his serve, frequently around 140 miles per hour (with his quickest timed at 153 mph last year), which does the damage but its trajectory. Because it comes down from such a height it rears up off the service box at a sharper angle than any other, which means opponents often have to try and return it at shoulder height or above.

Not surprisingly Karlovic also leads the tour in First Serve Points Won with 81%, while he stands between Roddick and Federer in second place in the category of Service Games Won with 90%. But it is worth noting that unlike the aforementioned duo, the Croat is currently outside the Top 10 in the category of Second Serve Points Won, an area in which Pete Sampras was arguably the greatest ever.

Yet Karlovic is now at a career-high No.18 and having initially been a very one-dimensional player when he first turned professional back in 2000, the last couple of seasons have seen him improve in certain areas. His main weaknesses have tended to be a lack of mobility, not uncommon in one so tall, and a poor backhand.

There is no doubt that he has worked hard in both departments with coach Cornel Simon since they teamed up in 2005. Although Karlovic broke into the Top 100 back in 2003, he then struggled to break into the Top 50 and did not do so until May 2006.

But last year all the effort started to pay off as he claimed his first career title on clay in Houston, followed that up with success on grass at Nottingham (where he retained his title this season) and then triumphed indoors on a hard court in Stockholm, the only player other than Federer to win on three different surfaces. Having never won 20 matches in a season before, he ended 2007 ranked No.22 after 43 wins and 21 losses - the first time he had finished with more successes than failures - and his total of 1,318 aces was the second most on Tour since his famous compatriot Goran Ivanisevic fired 1,477 in 1996.

To beat Karlovic, as Andy Murray showed so impressively in Cincinnati, you need to be very patient, return as many serves as you can to sow the seeds of doubt in his mind and then outplay him with better ground-strokes, court craft and movement. As Murray also demonstrated, once Karlovic steps up to the net and threatens blanket coverage with his wide reaching volleys, he finds it hard to back-track quickly and so can be lobbed in spite of his great height.

Even so, Karlovic is a formidable opponent for anyone and beyond Beijing he will head to New York, possibly as one of the Top16 seeds at the US Open for the first time. He is currently trading at [140].

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