(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
There’s something about Ivo Karlovic’s current run through the Wimbledon draw that makes me want to turn on my favorite Soundgarden record and rent my favorite Jeff Goldblum sci-fi summer action flick.
Watching the 6'10" Croat pound ace after ace, suddenly I feel like it’s the ‘90s all over again.
When most tennis fans think fondly of the last decade of the previous century, it’s usually for the Agassi-Sampras duels, or the Agassi-Rafter duels, or sometimes just Agassi. But there was a unique type of player that thrived in those days, especially on grass, that is often not remembered; at least not fondly.
I call them the Pure Power Players (PPP), while some refer to them as the Super Servers. Others fall asleep just thinking about them.
Individually these players could be quite charming; for example, Goran Ivanisevic ranks alongside Ilie Nastase and Mansour Bahrami among the game’s quirkiest players, with a distinct service motion and a knack for unpredictable shot attempts.
Richard Krajicek, on the other hand, was an underrated athlete with perfect technique on the serve, the volleys and the forehand. Mark Philippoussis lived a life of rock-and-roll excess and attacked every ball as if it had insulted the honor of his family.
It’s just that whenever these PPPs met each other on grass—or faced more well-rounded big servers like Pete Sampras and Boris Becker—the matches more resembled trap shooting than actual tennis. Sampras’ 1994 victory over Ivanisevic in the Wimbledon final was notable for featuring not one point with more than four shots.
The decline of the PPP in favor of power baseliners who were more reliant on defense and consistency is something the majority of tennis fans consider a positive development.
The tremendous play of Karlovic at this year’s event is unlikely to change that perception. It’s not just that the big Croat is one-dimensional—though he makes Philippoussis and Krajicek look positively well-rounded by comparison—but the man has no visible personality.
His serve, however, has character to spare. Thanks to his 6’10" height he is capable of reaching the 150 mph range while hitting spots and angles others can only imagine. In fact, it's possible that Karlovic is actually the biggest server of all time.
Consider: Near the end of his career at Wimbledon, Sampras’ first serve averaged at about 119 mph and his second came in at about 109. Philippoussis often averaged 124 mph on the first and 111 on the second.
At this year’s Wimbledon, Karlovic’s average first and second serves were 129 and 115 in Round Three, then 130 and 114 in Round Four.
What’s more, Andy Roddick—no slouch in the service department himself—said that even the Croat’s flat serves take a wicked bounce after landing thanks to the downward angle the towering Karlovic hits at.
“I don’t think you can compare my serve to his,” said Roddick a few years ago, despite holding the record for fastest serve ever at 155 mph.
And yet the towering Croat has done little damage in majors since shocking Lleyton Hewitt in the first round of Wimbledon in 2003. This year’s Wimbledon is his first ever trip past the fourth round of a major, and his four wins at this year’s event come after four straight years of first-round losses there.
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