Ivo Serves Past Stevie; Monfils Dismisses Zverev
Ivo Serves Past Stevie; Monfils Dismisses Zverev
Karlovic will play in his 16th ATP World Tour final; Monfils, his 25th
Ivo Karlovic remained perfect on his serve in Washington and will play for his first ATP World Tour 500 title on Sunday. The 37 year old blasted 14 more aces and erased all five break points to beat American Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-4 at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center.
Karlovic now leads the tournament with 80 aces and has held all 43 service games. The 6’11” Croatian will face Frenchman Gael Monfils, who dismissed NextGen star Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-0 in one hour. Monfils controlled the match from the start, breaking the 19 year old to open the semi-final contest, the first of four service breaks the second seed would secure.
Monfils also landed nearly 70 per cent of his first serves, compared to 44 per cent for Zverev, who is the youngest player in the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. In the second set, Monfils dropped only three points (12/15) on his serve.
The 29-year-old will go for his first Citi Open title and his first ATP World Tour title since Montpellier in 2014. He also played for the Washington title in 2011 (l. to Stepanek). Monfils is 5-19 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals. Sunday’s match-up will mark his third final of the season (Rotterdam, Monte-Carlo).
He is 2-2 against Karlovic in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. It will be Karlovic’s first final at the Citi Open. He reached the semi-finals in 2007 but lost to Andy Roddick. Clutch serving and opportunistic returning ensured that Karlovic wouldn’t fall to another American on Saturday.
At 1-all, he saw a break point and converted. It was the only chance to break he’d have all set long as Johnson otherwise kept up his consistent serving. Up to that game, the 26-year-old American was 33/33 on his serve.
The second set mirrored the first when, at 1-all, Karlovic sliced a backhand service return past a charging Johnson to earn another break. He’d serve out the set with his 14th ace.
Karlovic will try to win his eighth ATP World Tour title on Sunday. He’s played in 15 finals, including the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships final in Newport on 17 July (d. Muller).
On Friday, Karlovic said that winning an ATP World Tour 500 event was one of his goals for the next few years. He’ll have a chance to cross it off the list on Sunday in Washington.