Ivo Karlovic crushes Igor Kunitsyn; cruises to quarterfinals at US Men’s Clay Court Championship
Croatian qualifier Ivo Karlovic destroyed Russian Igor Kunitsyn on Wednesday to advance to the quarter-finals at the 2011 US Men’s Clay Court Championship at Houston. He registered a 6-4, 6-1 win over the 29-year-old Russian.
Ranked 174 in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Karlovic dumped the Russian in 67 minutes by converting four out of nine breakpoint opportunities to his advantage at the River Oaks Country Club. He overpowered
Kunitsyn on his first meeting to take the lead in their head-to-head series by 1-0.
The 32-year-old Croat is in top form this season as he made a quarter-final berth at Doha before losing to 4th seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko and also at Indian Wells where he lost to top seeded
Rafael Nadal. He entered this ATP World Tour 250 event with same momentum and after trashing three in-form players in the qualifiers, he advanced to the main draw and upset 5th seeded German Benjamin Becker in straight sets to reach
this spot.
The Croatian displayed exceptional skills in the opening set as he made a mini comeback after losing his serve early on in the set. He smacked six ferocious aces and earned an awesome 83 percent win on his higher first serve
share. Karlovic then sealed the set with a 6-4 win after breaking Kunitsyn’s serve twice.
Though Karlovic clobbered two double faults and produced a lower first serve share in the second set but he found four breakpoint opportunities and converted two to his advantage to earn a breadstick win. He also saved the
only breakpoint and registered a spectacular 85 percent win on his first serve share.
Kunitsyn, on the other hand, made no impact and showed no spark in the match. Though he had a slightly higher first serve share but took no advantage of it. He recently reached the final at San Jose Challenger and overwhelmed
German Mischa Zverev in straight sets in the first round but he was clearly out of form in this match.
The 6’10” Croat will next face 6’9” American John Isner. The 4th seeded American edged over Argentinean Horacio Zeballos by 7-5, 6-3 score line on another court. Isner completely outclassed the Argentinean
by hammering 14 aces to 2 of Zeballos and converted three out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win in straight sets.
“He’s obviously feeling comfortable,” Isner said of Karlovic. “He’s won five matches now, pretty easily, too, so it’s going to be tough. The key to the match is for someone to try to get a break. If not, then whoever plays
the big points better in the tie-break is going to win.”
It will be a worthwhile duel since both players are in their best form.
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