Roger Federer Must Keep Focus Squarely on Ivo Karlovic at Australian Open

Coming off of a match where he literally exerted no energy and playing an unranked opponent, it would be easy for Roger Federer to fall into a bad trap. If he does, his stay in Australia will be far too short. 

The 2012 Australian Open is shaping up well for Federer to at least reach the finals. He just has to be sure to keep both eyes and 100 percent of his attention on his opponent. Right now, that is Ivo Karlovic. 

On paper, this doesn't appear to be much of a matchup. Federer has a record 16 career Grand Slam titles, while Karlovic has never made it past the quarterfinals at a slam. 

But what Karlovic does have is a serve that you have to see to believe—that is, if you can actually see it. He has the hardest serve ever recorded on tour. That makes him extremely hard to break, even for Federer. 

The bigger problem is that it is so easy to look ahead. His next match is going to be against either No. 13 Alexandr Dolgopolov or rising star Bernard Tomic, who is also Australian. After that, Federer will likely be going against No. 11 Juan Martin Del Potro. Seeing those opponents, it is easy to take a match against Karlovic, who is almost 33 years old, for granted. 

The good news is that we're talking about Roger Federer. You earn the record for most career Grand Slams by overlooking opponents. The serve is problematic, but Federer does have a 21-2 recrod against Andy Roddick, meaning he can handle a big serve.

The advantage of playing guys like that is that they don't tend to be good at breaking anyone's serve. So managing even one break per set will likely lead to a straight set victory. 

It would be a bad idea to think that Federer will overlook Karlovic. But if he does do that, Karlovic has the game to pull the upset.

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