Jurgen Melzer crashes out to Ivo Karlovic in the opening round – Australian Open 2012
Left-handed Jurgen Melzer was ousted by the Croatian star, Ivo Karlovic, in straight sets at the Australian Open 2012, a major hard court tournament held at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. He suffered a 6-7(3), 5-7, 3-6 shock at the hands of the 32-year-old Croat in the opening round on Monday.
31st seed, Melzer, displayed dismal performance on court 18 at the Melbourne Park and lost to the Croat for the first time in their sixth meeting. World number 57, Karlovic, on the other hand avenged his loss at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 event in 2007 and advanced into the second round of this Grand Slam event.
Ranked 33rd in the South African Airways ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, Melzer confidently entered the opening set and held his serve in second game to level the scores at 1-1. Later, he maintained consistency in his game and bagged remaining serves. The set went to the tie-breaker where the seed was outmuscled, subsequently suffering a 6-7(3) defeat in 41 minutes.
The Austrian carried his losing ways in the second set and lost his serve in the seventh game to trail 3-4. Regardless of recovering in the very next game, he lost his serve again in the eleventh game and eventually registered a 5-7 score line in 45 minutes.
Melzer failed to find his rhythm in the third set and gifted away his serve in the opening game. He continued showing drastic performance and after losing his second serve in the third game, he went 3-0 down. Afterwards, the Austrian showed some resistance and snatched a break back in the sixth game. However, it wasn’t enough as Melzer lost his serve again in the ninth game and suffered a 3-6 loss in 38 minutes.
Overall, the seeded Austrian dusted away half of the ten breakpoints he came across and converted only two out of seven break chances to his advantage. He also committed eight double faults, spilled eight unforced errors and produced a lower first serve share.
Karlovic on the other hand advanced into the second round where he will confront Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq who rallied past Dutch qualifier, Jesse Huta Galung, in a four set mouth-watering match.
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