Probably the most surprising result to appear on the rain-spattered scoreboards of Wimbledon 2007
during the first couple of days was French veteran Fabrice Santoro's 4-6 7-6 7-4 7-6 3-6 6-4 defeat
of Ivo Karlovic. "Nobody wants to play Karlovic at Wimbledon - nobody," Santoro said. "If you ask
Roger Federer which unseeded guy you don't want to play in the first round, he's probably going to
say Karlovic." Karlovic's height (a towering 6 ft 10 in) made it unlikely that the match would disappear
under the radar, but the British media only had eyes for Tim Henman and his protracted battle with Carlos
Moya. The giant Croatian reached the quarter-finals at Queens Club and followed up with success at the
Nottingham Open - his second career title. Ranked outside the top 100 in April, Karlovic rocketed up to
45th going into Wimbledon. The confidence derived from an impressive run of results, coupled with his
age and height advantage, made him an odds-on favourite against Santoro. But it wasn't to be.
Karlovic had made waves at Wimbledon before, stunning defending champion Lleyton Hewitt in the first
round in 2003 and powering to the fourth round in 2004 before losing to eventual champion Roger Federer.
In 2005, he lost in the first round but made news with a record-tying 51 aces against Daniele Bracciali.
A left knee injury at Queen's put paid to his ambitions for grass-court success in 2006, but this year
he arrived at Wimbledon with the highest rate of aces on the tour - a staggering 461 in 24
matches, averaging 19 a match. He led in break points saved (72%), first-serve points won (83%) and
service games won (92%). It may be tempting to dismiss Karlovic as a one-shot wonder, but he has improved
his all-round game and became the first player this year to reach finals on three different surfaces
(clay, grass and hard). In April, at the age of 28, he finally earned his first ATP singles title and it
was on clay! He beat Argentinian Mariano Zabaleta 6-4 6-1 in the final of the U.S. Men's Clay Court
Championships in Houston, Texas. At the French Open, he defeated 8th seeded James Blake in the first round.
Karlovic, who started playing tennis at age six, is the tallest player to rank inside the Top 100 in the
history of the ATP Rankings (since 1973). His father, Vlado, works as a meteorologist and his mother,
Gordana, works in agriculture. He is married (to Alsi) and, unsurprisingly, one of his favorite
activities away from the tennis court is playing basketball.
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