The first and third seed, Feliciano Lopez, and Ivo Karlovic reached the final of the first edition of Los Cabos Open. Lopez defeated Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets, while Dusan Lajovic retired in the second set to give Ivo Karlovic his pass into the final.
Karlovic is aiming to win his first title of the year, while Lopez is trying to get his second title of the season.
So far in Los Cabos
Coming into the tournament as the first seed, Feliciano Lopez got a bye straight to the second round where he faced teenager, Reilly Opelka. The young American didn’t make it easy for the Spaniard, especially in the second set but Lopez managed to win in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Julien Benneteau also in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. In his first matches, Lopez showed a display of solid tennis and was greatly helped by his serve, but in his semifinal match against Pablo Carreno Busta, Lopez struggled in the first set as the first seed did several double faults and had some problems with his first serve. Still, Lopez found a way to improve his serve and won 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
It was a more complicated road for the Croatian who also got a bye into the second round where he played Mischa Zverev. The German really pushed Karlovic but the third seed came back to win in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. In his quarterfinal match, he faced the always dangerous, Marcel Granollers. The Spaniard dominated in the first set and stayed focused until the tiebreak of the second set where he conceded to Karlovic who ended up dominating Granollers in the third set. Karlovic won that match 2-6, 7-6. 6-1. His opponent in the semifinal would be Dusan Lajovic who defeated the second seed, Bernard Tomic in the second round. Despite the best efforts from the Serbian, Karlovic took the first set. Lajovic retired in the third game of the second set due an elbow and wrist injury.
Their year so far
After a regular first half of the season, Feliciano Lopez finally got his best result of the year just a month ago when he won the Swiss Open. In that final, he defeated Robin Haase in straight sets to win his fifth ATP singles title. That tournament was the last one prior Los Cabos Open and it was played on clay.
Ivo Karlovic also reached his best level in the last two months as he reached two finals. The first one was at Newport where he won his eighth ATP singles title against Gilles Muller. Just a few days later he reached his second final of the year at Washington but lost to Gael Monfils in three sets.
Head-to-Head
They have played eight times before, and it’s the Croatian who leads the series, 5-3. Their last match was in 2014 at Memphis where Karlovic won in straight sets. However, that win was on indoor hard, but their last meeting on outdoor happened in 2005 at Indian Wells where Lopez won in three sets.
Match Analysis
Both are big servers as they pretty much hit their first serve at the same speed. This can reduce the match at who can return better as the one who does that will probably have more possibilities to break. However, there’s no doubt that Karlovic has an advantage in the serve department because of his height. The Croatian uses the serve and volley very often which helps him to finish points very early and he also has a great coverage of the court because of his height. Lopez needs to serve the way he did in his first two serves, he can’t allow himself to have a set like the first one from his semifinal match where his serve was the biggest issues. In the final, Karlovic won’t forgive those mistakes.
This week, Lopez has been very aggressive and won’t be afraid to come to the net, but he also will attack from the baseline. His best chance to defeat Karlovic is to move him around the court and hit shots close to his body as that will be tough for him and will force him to make a mistake. He also needs to return almost as good as he needs to serve. His return will be a key point in the match, he needs to get early breaks and try to avoid tiebreaks.
Assessment
Karlovic has the head-to-head to his favor but this week Lopez has proved that those numbers are nothing but history. Lopez also had a negative record against his Benneteau and Carreno Busta but that didn’t influence his performance. As for the Croatian, his confidence is very high especially after winning Newport and reaching the final at Washington, plus he won two matches in three sets which should help him in case this match also goes to three.
It will be an interesting match as both players have a very powerful serve and it might come down to who` returns better. Also, both are veteran players and this week they have defeated younger players.
Prediction: Feliciano Lopez in three sets.