From last May through the end of the 2018 season, Ivo Karlovic managed to earn just two tour-level wins. His struggles forced him to compete on the ATP Challenger Tour towards the end of the year to try to remain inside the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings. He is currently World No. 100.

But it’s a new year, and the 39-year-old has wasted no time showing that he has plenty of good form left. Karlovic has made history this week in Pune, putting his name in the record books en route to the final at the Tata Open Maharashtra.

“It’s unbelievable. I didn’t expect it at all,” Karlovic told ATPTour.com. “Coming here I was hoping I could win a round or two. That would have been unbelievable. It’s incredible.”

By making the semi-finals, Karlovic became the oldest player to reach the last four at a tour-level event since 40-year-old Jimmy Connors at San Francisco in 1993. And now that he’s in the championship match, the Croat is the oldest player to advance to a tour-level final since 43-year-old Ken Rosewall triumphed in Hong Kong in 1977.

“Obviously he was one of the greatest. To be even mentioned in the same category as him, it’s incredible,” Karlovic said.

The former World No. 14 is projected to return to the Top 70 in the ATP Rankings on Monday regardless of whether or not he beats top seed Kevin Anderson in Saturday’s final. But if Karlovic lifts his first ATP Tour trophy since Los Cabos in 2016, he can climb back into the Top 60.

One may wonder, how is Karlovic playing so well when he is less than two months away from turning 40 years old? He has finished between No. 20 and No. 101 in the year-end ATP Rankings for 16 consecutive seasons.

“It helped that I didn’t reach the Top 100 at a really young age. I was 24, so I don’t feel like I’ve been doing this a long, long time. I have been, but it’s a different feeling,” Karlovic said. “I also try to do a lot of exercises to stay without injuries.”

According to former World No. 4 Brad Gilbert, “Dr. Ivo” has a gamestyle that allows him to maintain a certain level of consistency. It doesn’t hurt that the Croat is the ATP Tour’s all-time aces leader. This week, Karlovic became the first player to hit 13,000 aces.

“The serve and volley is almost dead these days but Dr. Ivo uses it to his advantage. His game is almost ageless,” Gilbert told ATPTour.com. “He plays with a great sense of calmness and doesn’t get too high or low. He plays with clarity and serves and volleys all the time, no matter what surface he plays on, which is difficult to do.

“He’s kept himself remarkably fit and he plays so economically. It’s almost like he plays doubles, playing singles. Guys 45 are playing doubles well and he’s doing the same at his age in singles… What is most impressive about him in these long three-set matches is that he sustains his serving power and doesn’t drop off. He’s been remarkably healthy throughout most of his career. He’s like Nolan Ryan, who was a power pitcher in his 40s. Ivo is still bringing the heat and he’s going to be 40 next month.”

And while Karlovic will be focused on trying to win his ninth ATP Tour crown on Saturday, his success shows that the 39-year-old has plenty of game left in him.

Did You Know?
The Pune final between Karlovic (6’11”, 2.11m) and Anderson (6’8″, 2.03m) will be the tallest championship match in the Open Era (since 1968). The previous tallest final was in Atlanta in 2013, when John Isner (6’10”, 2.08m) defeated Anderson in a third-set tie-break.

Novak Djokovic was on the doorstep of victory in the semi-finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, leading Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 4-3, with a break in the second set. But the Spaniard mounted a spirited comeback to upset the top seed 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.

Nobody ever wants to lose, especially when victory is within reach. But Djokovic gave all credit to Bautista Agut, who will play Tomas Berdych for the title on Saturday.

“I want to congratulate him,” Djokovic said. “Especially in the third set he played well. I thought he was hitting the ball very clean and not making a lot of errors.”

One can dig deep into a match to analyse why one player wins and another loses. Bautista Agut maintained unrelenting pressure throughout the match, making few mistakes against the Serbian to earn his second victory against a World No. 1 (def. Djokovic, 2016 Shanghai). But Djokovic does not want to dwell on his loss. After all, he has still won 29 of his past 32 matches.

“I lost the match. That’s it. He managed to turn things around, obviously at the end of the second set. I thought I was pretty much in control of the match,” Djokovic said. “He played a good game. I missed some easy balls and that’s what you get as a result of losing the focus in the most important moments. And it happens, it happens.”

A loss is a loss, but there are still positives for Djokovic to leave Doha with. He was able to spend 11 hours and four minutes on court in his first tournament of the year, which includes his run to the doubles semi-finals with brother Marko Djokovic.

“This is what I was looking forward to, to get from this tournament, as many matches as possible, to get ready for the Australian Open. So I’m very pleased,” Djokovic said. “Obviously, I’m not pleased that I lost the match today, but I lost to a better player in the end and I have to turn the next page.”

One might wonder if Djokovic’s efforts on the doubles court affected his singles play. But the 72-time tour-level titlist said that is not the case. Djokovic enjoyed playing with his brother, and believes that the reason he lost to Bautista Agut was simple, and it has nothing to do with doubles.

“I was very close to winning the match. A few points decided the winner,” Djokovic said. “He was the one.”

The World No. 1 may be disappointed to not advance to the final, but the loss will not change his mindset moving forward. Djokovic’s next tournament is the Australian Open, where he has triumphed six times. And to nobody’s surprise, the goal he is striving for in Melbourne remains the same.

“A trophy.”

Ivo Karlovic made history at the Tata Open Maharashtra on Friday, becoming the first player since 43-year-old Ken Rosewall at 1977 Hong Kong to reach a tour-level final. The 39-year-old beat Belgian Steve Darcis 7-6(3), to advance to his first championship match since ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2017.

The former World No. 14 had already made history this week by becoming the oldest tour-level semi-finalist since Jimmy Connors made the last four at 1993 San Francisco. But Karlovic defeated Darcis in one hour and 55 minutes to go one step further, where he will play top seed Kevin Anderson or defending champion Gilles Simon for the title.

Karlovic has now reached seven of his 19 ATP Tour finals after turning 35, and it is an especially good effort for him this week considering he had not reached a tour-level quarter-final since Houston last April. The Croat has claimed eight ATP Tour titles, with his most recent triumph coming in Los Cabos three years ago.

It was a feel-good semi-final against Darcis, who missed all of 2018 due to injury, and became the first unranked player in ATP Tour history (since 1990) to make a tour-level semi-final. But Karlovic, who also defeated the Belgian at Wimbledon in 2009 in their only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting, was too strong on serve. The 6’11” right-hander won 90 per cent of his first-serve points in the match. And while he was broken for the first time in the tournament, Karlovic struck 33 aces to extend his tournament lead to 88 aces.

It appeared that Darcis might have changed momentum when he broke Karlovic in the second set, as the Croat missed an overhead off the bounce well long. The Belgian had plenty of motivation in his first ATP Tour semi-final since 2012 in Eastbourne. But Karlovic lost just five service points in the decider, and earned his first break of the match in the third set before holding through the rest of the set to clinch the victory. 

Did You Know?
Karlovic began the week at No. 100 in the ATP Rankings. But thanks to his efforts, he will return to at least the Top 70 on Monday regardless of his result in the final.

Wesley Koolhof and Marcus Daniell booked their places in a second ATP Tour final on Friday at the Brisbane International by scraping past Australian wild cards John Millman and John-Patrick Smith 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 10-8 in one hour and 56 minutes. Both teams won 86 points. In October last year, Daniell and Koolhof finished as runners up in their first title match at the Intrum Stockholm Open (l. to Bambridge/O’Mara).

They will next face fourth seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, who lost just sixth of their first service points to beat Australian wild cards James Duckworth and Jordan Thompson 7-6(5), 6-3 in 72 minutes. Watch Highlights

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Daniil Medvedev is one step closer to a second ATP Tour final on Australian soil, almost 12 months on from capturing his first title at the Sydney International. The fourth-seeded Russian kept his nerve on Friday to defeat 2016 champion and fifth seed Milos Raonic of Canada 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes at the Brisbane International.

Medvedev withstood 29 aces from Raonic, saved all eight break points he faced – including three set points at 4-5 in the first set – and struck 12 aces to advance to the semi-finals, where he will face France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or seventh seed Alex de Minaur of Australia.

Raonic had three set points at 5-4, with Medvedev serving at 0/40, but the Russian fought off all three and forced a tie-break. There, however, Raonic dominated to take the opener.

Medvedev secured the first break of the match, though, in the second game of the second set and cruised to even the quarter-final with an ace. The 22-year-old needed to bide his time until the ninth game of the decider when he broke Raonic, who won 82 per cent of his first-service points.

In addition to the Sydney title (d. de Minaur), World No. 16 Medvedev also lifted ATP Tour trophies in 2018 at the Winston-Salem Open (d. Johnson) and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships (d. Nishikori). Raonic, 28, has compiled 30+ wins in seven of the past eight seasons.

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