TENNIS in DEPTH.

Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic secured his place in the second week of Wimbledon for just the second time in seven visits to the All England Club with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-5) victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Ninth seed Tsonga simply had no answer to the brutal serving of Karlovic, who fired down a staggering 46 aces on his way to the fourth round.

Up next for Karlovic is 7th seed Verdasco, who has a big serve himself but is also vulnerable to being broken more often than Tsonga. If Karlovic can produce a similat number of aces in his next match he will be virtually unstopable. 46 aces in any match represents two sets of free points to the server, and puts so much pressure on the receiver to win his own service games to be able to reach a tie break. I doubt that Verdasco has this ability.

Looking ahead to the following round would put Karlovic up against Federer, who maybe one of the only players capable of returning the big man’s service consistently. The last time they met in October 2008, it was Karlovic who came away with the victory!

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