23rd seeded Ivo Karlovic is moving on to the second round of Wimbledon. The big-serving Croatian defeated his younger countryman Borna Coric in straight sets as he sets his sights on a grass title at the sport's most storied tournament.
The old and the new
The match was significant in more ways than one. Not only are these two men both Croatian-born players (part of a crop of several Croats in this year's tournament), but there is a wide age disparity between the two. Coric is still a young teenager looking for a signature win at a Grand Slam tournament. He didn't get it while taking on the much older Karlovic, who once made the quarterfinal on this green grass in London. The older Croatian dominated the match to take a 7-6(8) 7-6(7) 6-4 win.
The match began with quite an even start. No man lost serve throughout the first set. In fact, neither even faced a break point. It was largely a set (and match) dictated by the serves of the two men. Advantage Karlovic.
The world number 32 fired nine aces in the first set. He pounded the grass on court 8 with regularity, flummoxing his Croatian counterpart. Coric, for his part, could only answer with the one ace. He made up for it in other ways, however. He hit winner after winner in the match, using an even combination of both the backhand and the forehand to noticeable effect.
The set needed to be decided in a tiebreak. Even that was a level affair. Karlovic managed to get the better of Coric with a brilliant backhand winner. The point clinched the first set for Karlovic 7-6(8).
Ivo's other talents
Karlovic is largely known for being one of the best servers on the ATP Tour, but today he went beyond those skills- especially in the second set.
Time and time again, the big righty would play a shot that dipped low to his feet. He'd bend down (an interesting sight given Karlovic's large frame) and scoop the ball off his shoelaces and fire it back over the net. Coric, however, seemed content to do much of the same work that kept him in the first set. The young player is a remarkably efficient player and took little chances against a man with such a large wingspan, who could burn him if he tried to repeatedly send shots down the line. All told, yet another tiebreak would be needed to decide the second set.
Much like the first tie-break, this one stacked up to be fairly even. However, Karlovic forced Coric to commit an error on his forehand and won the break and the second set.
Breaking Coric
It appeared by that point that Karlovic had set himself on a path to take another first-round victory at Wimbledon. Though Coric still seemed to give a valiant effort, he was out of luck, already down two sets to none and still dealing with the blistering aces from his countryman Karlovic.
It appeared that the two men would need another tiebreak to decide the final set, but Karlovic put that mystery to bed in Coric's final service game. With both men on serve and the older player leader by a game, Coric managed to lose three of his first four points serving. He did save one match point, but another error off his forehand handed the victory to Karlovic.
It seems fairly clear that Coric is the future of tennis for Croatia. But today was Ivo Karlovic's day. and the 37-year old smiled with jubilation as he advances to the second round in tennis' most storied tournament.