The two tallest men on tour take to the court today in Houston as Ivo Karlovic faces John Isner.
Don't expect too many long rallies in this one. It may be clay but Karlovic has still be firing aces like a machine all week and broke the tournament record in qualifying at the weekend. Isner's serve isn't too shabby either, the 6'9 American fired down 14 aces in a 7-5, 6-3 win over Horacio Zeballos.
We should expect tiebreaks galore but neither of the previous two matches between these players have lived up to expectations. Karlovic won 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in New Haven back in 2008 and Isner enjoyed a fairly routine 6-1, 7-6 win in Memphis last year. Neither of those matches were the kind of epic contest that this match-up deserves.
“He’s obviously feeling comfortable,” Isner said. “He’s won five matches now, pretty easily, too, so it’s going to be tough. The key to the match is for someone to try to get a break. If not, then whoever plays the big points better in the tie-break is going to win."
Surprisingly, Isner admitted that he actually enjoys the challenge of playing on clay. He had some decent results on the surface last year, reaching a final in Belgrade.
Prediction: Karlovic in three
