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Clement Holds On Against Big Serving Karlovic

Written by Ed McGrogan
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Ivo Karlovic’s powerful serve never waned in intensity from the beginning to the end of his first round match against Arnaud Clement. But in spite of having this consistent and powerful weapon at his disposal, Karlovic was denied victory because his opponent’s return of serve was even better. Karlovic, the tour's tallest player, fired 38 aces during the four-hour and eight-minute battle, but a considerable amount of them came before Clement got into a groove when returning serve. Once Clement – whose trademark shades came in handy on this hot and sunny day – started to put Ivo’s serves back into play, his superior groundstrokes often prevailed. The Frenchman took the first two sets 7-6 and 6-4, and a straight sets upset appeared to be in the making. But Karlovic showed his versatility during the latter stages of this match, in particular at net, where his overlooked volleying skills won him a number of points. With most of Court 11's near capacity crowd pulling for more tennis (and in turn, for Karlovic), the Croatian fed off of the energy and comfortably won the third set 6-4. Clement had his chances to end the match in the fourth set, but could never put the final nail in the coffin. Karlovic painted the lines with his forehand, often to the disbelief of the animated Clement. In the tiebreaker, Clement clawed his way back from a 6-1 deficit, but Karlovic held on – barely – and won it by an 8-6 score. The fourth set was the longest of the match, going 74 minutes in duration. With a two sets to none lead vanished, Clement was on the verge of a complete collapse. But he avoided this by relying on his best shot – the return of serve. Clement played aggressively in the third game of the final set, and grabbed an early 2-1 lead. Staying composed, the veteran held serve until the end, winning a thrilling, up-and-down match 7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-7, 6-4. In the second round, Clement will play Thomas Johansson, who defeated Nicolas Massu in four sets. !