By Chris Oddo | Thursday, January 8, 2015
Ivo Karlovic fired 21 aces to topple No. 1-seeded Novak Djokovic in a tense battle in Doha.
Photo Source: Qatar Tennis
The mighty continue to fall during the first week of the 2015 tennis season, as Novak Djokovic was ousted by a bomb-serving Ivo Karlovic in three tense sets on Thursday in Doha, 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-4, just a few days after second-seeded Rafael Nadal was rocked by Michael Berrer in his first match of the season.
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Karlovic’s 21 aces move him just 12 shy of second on the ATP’s all-time list behind Andy Roddick’s 9,074.
The Croat improves to 18-48 lifetime against the ATP’s top ten with the victory, and 2-1 lifetime against Djokovic.
After dropping the opener in a one-sided tiebreaker, Karlovic rallied to take the middle set, clinching it on his second set point when Djokovic pulled a passing shot wide in gusty conditions.
Karlovic would thread the needle with a seeing-eye forehand pass to claim the decisive break in the seventh game of the third set. He would not look back from there, as he didn’t face a break point over the entire match.
Karlovic held to love while serving for the match, knocking a clean forehand winner to close, setting up a semifinal with David Ferrer on Friday.
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