Massive Ace Tallies Don’t Guarantee Wins, Karlovic & Isner Find

Ivo Karlovic was knocked out of Wimbledon on Wednesday, but not before the 6’11” Croatian delivered another historic service day at The Championships.

The 39-year-old struck 61 aces, the third most hit at SW19 and the most outside of John Isner and Nicolas Mahut’s three-day first-round match in 2010, in which Isner, who won the fifth set 70-68, hit 113 aces to Mahut’s 103.

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Karlovic now sits in third place on the all-time Wimbledon ace list, ahead of fourth-placed Albano Olivetti, who hit 56 in a losing effort against Aussie Matthew Barton in 2016. The big Croatian has now hit 50-plus aces in a Grand Slam match eight times.

Karlovic spaced his aces out against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who came back to win 6-7(5), 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 13-11. Karlovic hit 15, four, 11, 13 and 18 in each respective set.

Dr. Ivo might not sit at fourth place for long, though. Isner is well on his way to passing Karlovic, but he still has work to do to avoid Karlovic’s fate.

The ninth seed has already hit 57 aces in his second-round match against Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans and could have another two games, or two days, to go. Isner was serving at 6-1, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-7(3), 3-4, 30/0, before rain postponed their match until Thursday.