Hard-serving Karlovic, 44, announces retirement

Tennis

Ivo Karlovic has officially announced his retirement from tennis after having not played a tournament match in 2½ years.

The 6 foot, 11-inch Croatian said in a post Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, that “I’ve had a very gratifying, unorthodox and long career coming from extremely humble beginnings, especially for a tennis player.”

The 44-year-old Karlovic — he will turn 45 next week — played his last ATP match in a second-round qualifying loss at Indian Wells, California in October 2021. His last Grand Slam tournament match was a first-round singles loss at the US Open about six weeks earlier.

He finished his 25-year career with eight singles titles and a record of 371 wins, 346 losses and $10.1 million in prize money. His highest singles ranking was at No. 14 in August 2008.

His best Grand Slam singles performance was at Wimbledon in 2009, when he advanced to the quarterfinals. He also won the Davis Cup in 2005 with Croatia when it beat Slovakia in the final for the country’s first title.

He finished his career with 13,728 aces, second behind John Isner with 14,470. Karlovic has the most aces in a best-of-three-set match with 45 at Halle in 2015 and two weeks later at Wimbledon became the only player to hit at least 40 aces in three consecutive matches.

Six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker was among those to congratulate Karlovi c on X, calling his serve “the best in tennis.”

Products You May Like

Articles You May Like

Ireland vs NZ: All Blacks star duo out of big clash
‘He’s hungrier than ever’: How Dan Hurley is leading UConn after back-to-back national titles
How the Paul George negotiations changed the direction of the Clippers
Isak header puts huge dent in Arsenal’s title hopes
Oregon loses top WR Johnson early vs. Michigan

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *