Karlovic First Through To Final In Mexico

Ivo Karlovic is through to his third ATP World Tour final from his past four events after Dusan Lajovic retired with wrist and elbow pain in the Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel semi-finals on Friday. The No. 3 seed looked on his way to winning his fifth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting from as many encounters with the Serbian after taking the opening set 6-2 before Lajovic called time at 1-1 in the second set.

It marked an unfortunate end for the World No. 72 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, after taking down No. 2 seed Bernard Tomic and No. 7 seed Nicolas Almagro en route to his third semi-final.  For 37-year-old Karlovic, it extends an impressive run of form of late, in which he has won 13 of his past 15 matches.

“I’m really happy that I’m in the final but then again I know him really well and know that he’s a really good guy so I would never wish this for him,” Karlovic said. “I began really aggressive and that’s my game. I was going to the net and he was missing all the passing shots.”

The Croatian will bid to win his eighth ATP World Tour final against either top seed Feliciano Lopez or Pablo Carreno Busta. “This is what I was hoping for when I arrived here,” he said. “I was doing really well in the last month or so. I made finals in Newport and Washington and also here now. I’m really happy about that.”