Karlovic Makes History In Pune

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.