Why doesn't Karlovic rarely go past 125 mph on 1st serve anymore?

[robbo1970]

Not serve so good when 800 years old you are!

My guess goes with increased 1st serve percentages and variation. The trouble with hitting big serves that become predictable, is that they come back with most of the pace you've just generated yourself.

Don't forget, as well as being 800 years old, he's 15 foot tall as well, so mobility on reaching fast returns becomes an issue.

 

[Stupendous1HBH]

Tennis elbow, clearly.

 

[TennisLBC]

Probably arthritis or something.

Ivo Karlovic has always been lying about his age. He lied about his age all the time. I'm a barber, and one time Goran Ivanisevic came in here and sat in this chair. I said Goran 'you hang out with Ivo Karlovic, just between me and you, how old is Ivo Karlovic?' You know what Goran told me, he said "Hey, Ivo Karlovic is 137 years old."

A hundred and thirty-seven years old!

Didn't happen around the time you saw Arthur Ashe walking doing the street, and he punched you in the chest?

 

[Zoolander]

Don't forget, as well as being 800 years old, he's 15 foot tall as well, so mobility on reaching fast returns becomes an issue.

Just 15 feet tall? I heard he was closer to 18 feet. When your THAT tall you should be serving at around 110% first serves in at 150mph. Makes me think the good Dr is worried about being typecast as a servebot and people overlooking the rest of his game, so he's toning his serve down a bit deliberately.

 

[ForumMember]

Once Karlovic was put in collosseum as gladiator and was asked to fight wild elephant just with a Tennis racket and ball. Legend has it fight lasted just few seconds as Dr killed elephant with a second serve that landed on the forehead of poor animal. It could have been even quicker if his first serve had landed correctly. He has become much slower since as doesn't want to risk life of other players of modern age.

 

[Bender]

Maybe some of the more bigger Ivo fans can shed some light.

hehe

 

[Bender]

Pretty sure by the time we reach to 2nd or 3rd page on this thread, someone would claim him to be of 500 yrs of age.

Edit - Realized I was very conservative with my estimates. He is already over 6000 yrs on first page itself.

how ivo is dat old wen the earth is only 2017 yrs old???

 

[ForumMember]

how ivo is dat old wen the earth is only 2017 yrs old???

what makes you think he was born on earth? he could simply have migrated from some other planet. Looking at his tennis, he doesn't seem to have learnt it the way players on earth do.

 

[okdude1992]

Probably because 125-130 is still plenty hard with the crazy angle of his serve. And because he's gotten older as everyone was quick to mention.
Roddick also lost a lot of pace on his serve towards the end of his career and decided to work his variety more. It's pretty common I'd imagine

 

[Tennis_Bum]

Strange. His 1st serve percentage was generally in the mid to high 60s for his whole career.

Looking at his annual average 1st serve percentage, there isn't that much change. In fact, it's slightly worse than some of his best years.

Ivo also had plenty of variation, not sure what that was about really.

You have to take Gilbert's words with a grain of salt. He and the McEnroe brothers are full of hot air.

 

[stapletonj]

First, I tried to ask Ivo's dad, Methuselah, how old he was, he said the whippersnapper was only 132, so there it is from the horse's mouth.

The next observation I have is that I think the radar gun speeds being reported are being "tweaked"....
Which can of course be done with angles, where the beam is set, etc.