Ivo Karlovic battles past Kenny de Schepper in the first round – Moselle Open 2012
Ranked 90th in the South African Airways ATP Singles Rankings, Ivo Karlovic defeated the Frenchman, Kenny de Schepper, in the first round of the Moselle Open 2012 held at the indoor hard
courts of France. The Croatian native summed up his 7-6(5), 7-6(3) in one hour and 52 minutes on Tuesday.
The two players had a strong defence and held their serve throughout the opener. The score line squared out six times and 33-year-old Karlovic eventually closed the set 7-6(5) after a close tiebreaker round.
The right-hander Croatian fired a remarkable score of 12 aces and committed four double faults. He had an average first serve precision of 60 percent, capitalizing 26 of 29 first and 10 of 19 second serve points
in the set. On the contrary, his competitor could only direct to smack four aces and double faulted three times. He could hardly manage to achieve 59 percent initial serve accuracy, converting 16 of 22 first and 12 of 15 second delivery points.
In the second set, the 25-year-old French professional served the opening game and took maximum advantage of the situation by drawing the first blood. However, the Croatian native maintained his superior game
plan and continuously oscillated the momentum between the two sides. Like before, the set concluded at 7-6(3) after a tiebreaker round, where Karlovic turned out to be the shocking victor.
The world number 211, Schepper, bombarded five aces onto his opponent but also double faulted four times at the critical instances in the set. He maintained a reasonable first serve percentage of 55, snatching
23 of 26 first and eight of 21 second serve points. Karlovic smashed six aces onto his rival and did not double fault once. He had an improved first serve precision of 79 percent, clinching 23 of 26 points on it. He received six serve break opportunities and
he was unable to take advantage of any.
For the next match, Karlovic will fight against the third seeded, Marcel Granollers. The Spanish contender is currently ranked 24th in the ATP Singles and will surely give his rival a
tough deal.
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