Karlovic threatens multiple records with first-round win

Jan 17, 2017
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Karlovic threatens multiple records with first-round win

The 20th seed outlasted Horacio Zeballos 22-20 in the fifth set.

Published Jan 17, 2017

At every Grand Slam excluding the US Open, play does not go to a tiebreaker in a deciding set. Someone has to break to win, so naturally if you want a quick night, 6'11" big-serving Ivo Karlovic is probably not the guy you want to play.

Argentina's Horacio Zeballos learned that first hand in a record-setting opening round match on Tuesday, as Karlovic came back from two sets down to win, 6-7 (8), 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 22-20.

“If it was easy match or I lost easily, I wouldn't remember it,” Karlovic said. “But this one I will definitely remember forever.”

While the match did not go quite as long as the 2010 Wimbledon classic between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, which took 11 hours and five minutes to finish at 70-68 in the fifth set, Karlovic’s victory set and challenged plenty of records.

“I was thinking about that other match,” Karlovic said in reference to the Isner-Mahut marathon. “I was hoping, a little bit, it could go that long so I could also have that record.”

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But Karlovic’s win still produced the longest match in Australian Open history in terms of games played (84), eclipsing the 2003 quarterfinal between Andy Roddick and Younes El Aynaoui (83), which was also 15 minutes shorter.

The Karlovic-Zeballos saga, which lasted five hours and 14 minutes, is tied for the second longest Australian Open match by time (behind the 2012 final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal) and was the longest match overall since Leonardo Mayer beat Joao Souza in nearly seven hours two years ago in Davis Cup play.

No marathon Karlovic match goes without threatening ace records, either. The all-time ATP leader in aces smacked 75 service winners past Zeballos, breaking Joachim Johansson’s previous Australian Open record by a whopping 24. It was the fourth-most aces ever hit in a match, giving Karlovic three of the top five slots.

If you were wondering whether or not the fans showed up, check this out—the Australian faithful did anything they could to get a glimpse of the action.

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Karlovic will next battle wildcard local Andrew Whittington for a spot in the third round.