zagor
Bionic Poster
Against Dr. Ivo? I don't think he does (hell, no top player does).
Back in 2008 or 2009 he said that playing Karlovic is not really a tennis match lol.
Players complaining about Karlovic serve?
- Thread starter The Green Mile
- Start date
Against Dr. Ivo? I don't think he does (hell, no top player does).
Back in 2008 or 2009 he said that playing Karlovic is not really a tennis match lol.
D
Deleted member 77403
Guest
I just remember watching that while hitting incline bench press.
The Green Mile
Bionic Poster
Have you seen their Madrid 08 match?
zagor
Bionic Poster
Nah, didn't catch it. The one thing I remember from 2008 Madrid was that Nadal-Simon thriller.
D
Deleted member 77403
Guest
I remember that, and Murray getting back at Federer for USO and then beating Simon in the final. That was the start of Murray's best run against Federer, where he won four in a row against him.
zagor
Bionic Poster
Oh yeah, IIRC Murray basically served Fed off court. He always had that 2nd serve weakness but was still considered a big server in those days because of how big he went for it on his 1st serve under Gilbert.
davced1
Hall of Fame
Jan Gunnarsson, former ATP pro had this to say on swedish television after Karlovic won Stockholm Open in 2007 defeating Thomas Johansson in the final. Freely translated from swedish.
"It's not crowd pleasing tennis and not much applause either. In the long run, it is devastating for tennis if Karlovic gets in among the top ten because it is extremely difficult to defeat him. There is no beauty tenniswise"
Thomas Johansson himself had this to say in an interview with Eurosport in 2009. Freely translated from swedish.
"I have played Ivo Karlovic a few times and it is among the most boring thing to do whatsoever. You just need to try and think that tennis is fun"
"It's not crowd pleasing tennis and not much applause either. In the long run, it is devastating for tennis if Karlovic gets in among the top ten because it is extremely difficult to defeat him. There is no beauty tenniswise"
Thomas Johansson himself had this to say in an interview with Eurosport in 2009. Freely translated from swedish.
"I have played Ivo Karlovic a few times and it is among the most boring thing to do whatsoever. You just need to try and think that tennis is fun"
Rhino
Legend
I remember Verdasco saying some funny things about the Raonic serve:
"For me that's not a real match in tennis," Verdasco said. "I hope to play soon against him in clay court to show him what it is to play tennis, and play rallies, and run, and not only serve."
And this gem:
“There (should) be another league for players like him because it’s another sport when he serves at 145 (mph) all the time and every time … it’s on the line. It’s tough to play like that,” said Verdasco, “You see him in the locker-room and he takes off his shirt, he has the body of a 12-year-old boy ... I don’t know how he doesn't break his shoulder when he serves.”
"For me that's not a real match in tennis," Verdasco said. "I hope to play soon against him in clay court to show him what it is to play tennis, and play rallies, and run, and not only serve."
And this gem:
“There (should) be another league for players like him because it’s another sport when he serves at 145 (mph) all the time and every time … it’s on the line. It’s tough to play like that,” said Verdasco, “You see him in the locker-room and he takes off his shirt, he has the body of a 12-year-old boy ... I don’t know how he doesn't break his shoulder when he serves.”
Moose Malloy
G.O.A.T.
Mark woodforde talked about how boring Gorans game was and that the only reason he beat anyone was his serve. Goran then called him an old man with a **** backhand. This was at the 1998 USO, where woodforde was the oldest player in the draw - age 33.
I also recall haas being rather annoyed at losing to isner in Washington DC, saying that he was just a serve.
I also recall haas being rather annoyed at losing to isner in Washington DC, saying that he was just a serve.
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Mainad
Bionic Poster
By that stage, Gilbert was no longer coaching Murray, he had switched to Miles Maclagan.
zagor
Bionic Poster
Yeah, my bad. I remembered it after that they split during Murray's wrist injury in 2007.
Still I definitely remember him having a bigger 1st serve in those days. In their 2008 Madrid match he outaced Fed (and was overall more dominant on his serve), not an easy thing to do on an indoor HC.
D
Deleted member 3771
Guest
Vesrdasco won the last 3 vs Karlovic to level the h2h 4-4 so he has probably quit complaing now.
ibbi
G.O.A.T.
I remember one year Tsonga was playing him at Wimbledon, and could get nothing on his serve, and on one of the sitdowns there was this glorious, picture says a thousand words shot of Jo sitting with a towel over his head staring off into the distance in bafflement.
I think in the next round Roger knocked him out in straight sets, but it was a fun day.
I think in the next round Roger knocked him out in straight sets, but it was a fun day.
Terenigma
G.O.A.T.
I am absolutely behind someone doing this. Its kind of a rude thing to but quite frankly, tennis is an athletic sports and if all you can do is hit the ball hard from a controlled position then you're not playing tennis. Dr Ivo SOMEWHAT justified this by having a good serve and volley game but its still a joke that serve-bots can get so many wins just by doing one thing whereas Djokovic trains everyday, puts himself through so much effort and practise to be good at all aspects and then gets beaten by a guy who can just swing hard well for 1 day.
Gazelle
G.O.A.T.
Aha, another Djokovic special 'racket over the net' cheating moment.
Capulin Zurdo
Hall of Fame
I wonder if Karlovic had predominately played during the 80's/90's he'd have won a Wimbledon or at least made some finals.
Moose Malloy
G.O.A.T.
I think Goran got a lot more flack for his serve than Karlovic since he was a top 10 player for many years, while Karlovic is sort of an irrelevant player in the big picture. I recall many press conferences where reporters would ask him if he thought fans enjoyed watching him play. Fans actually started booing his aces in the final of the 1993 Paris Masters.
Also, Courier yelled out "boring tennis!" when he played krajicek at the YEC in 1992. Krajicek seemed a bit annoyed about that when he was asked about it later.
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Mainad
Bionic Poster
The 2008 Queen's final? It was a straight setter for Nadal (7-6,7-5) although I seem to recall Djokovic had been up a break in both sets.
The Green Mile
Bionic Poster
No, the match against Ivo.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
disgruntledamsel
Professional
It was funny. I’ve never seen Djoker serve without bouncing the ball. I can’t be sure because it might have been out of the picture, but on his second serve, it looked like he grabbed the ball from the ball kid and just threw it up to serve. Probably never see that again.
zagor
Bionic Poster
Looks like that to me as well. I've seen him serve without bouncing but only in his one of his imitating performances (when he did a Becker serve for example) which this game kinda was. A funny and unique way of expressing his frustration with Ivo's game.
Chanwan
G.O.A.T.
I honestly don't get the problem with a player like Karlovic winning matches. One of the great things about tennis, imo, is that despite there being an ideal height, say 6'1-6'3, you still see players with vastly different physiques relying on different strategies to win. Would I like it if players like Karlovic and Isner dominated the rankings? No, but they don't. To me, the rules of tennis allows players of their type exactly the right chance. They can become top-20 players, heck even top-10 for a brief period in Isner's case. And then they can be jokers in an otherwise quite predictable draw.
In 2015, Novak lost to Fed (3), Stan (1), Murray (1) and Karlovic (1). You don't see guys like PCB, ARV and RBA on a list like that. Because while they all are incredibly solid, they lack the weapons to make the match unpredictable for a Big-3 guy, who's not injured. Karlovic and Isner brings that unpredictability. And imo, that's a good thing.
Also, while Karlovic does have the best serve in the history of tennis, the rest of his game is hardly as bad as some people make it look. Surely, his BH slice is above the average ATP-100 player? His volleys too. And, if in position, I would even say his forehand is probably above average too - at least in terms of being a point-ending shot. His major deficit is his movement and that causes people to think he can hardly play tennis apart from his serve.
Tbh, I found it no better than Söderling pulling his shorts and taking plenty of time to serve, when playing Rafa in 2007.
On second thought, I find it worse. Djoko is mocking a legitimate way to play tennis. Söderling is mocking Rafa breaking the time rules by going through his rituals.
heninfan99
Talk Tennis Guru
Yes Goran did. One of the Woodies gave him a lot of flak and disrespect and LOST.
Sarzy
Hall of Fame
I don't know if it was the same match I'm thinking of, but I remember one year at Wimbledon when Federer was returning his massive serves like they were nothing! Stuck in my mind!
ibbi
G.O.A.T.
The one I'm talking about was 2009. Ivo had knocked out Verdasco and Tsonga in both very similar ways, and then along comes Fed, and just clinically took him apart. It wasn't like Karlovic played badly (http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/2009/540/MS007/match-stats) Fed just took every little chance he got.
D
Deleted member 688153
Guest
He doesn't play the real tennis, no?
You cannot have the rallies, no?
D
Deleted member 688153
Guest
That incident where Djoker was mocking Ivo's tennis was funny. He was losing his cool because his opponent wasn't playing the way he wanted him to. Boo hoo lol. Take the L. 
smalahove
Hall of Fame
That's insane. It's clear from the slo-mo rerun that the umpire can see the infraction crystal clear. Unbelievable.
Wander
Hall of Fame
Well, except that they don't get to see it in slow-motion.
SinjinCooper
Hall of Fame
You don't need slow motion to see something it's already clear you have seen.
