Ivo Karlovic looks to regain some confidence in Newport this week. He starts on Tuesday against Denis Kudla.
It's been an up and down 2011 for big Ivo who currently finds himself languishing at 144 in the rankings, far below his best of 14, reached almost three years ago.
The grass-court season has been surprisingly unproductive for him to date. With his serve, you cannot count Karlovic out against anyone on the surface but he lost to Kevin Anderson in the first round of Queens and bombed out to clay-courter Lukasz Kubot at Wimbledon.
So, what is up with Karlovic ? The standard of returning on tour continues to increase and players are dealing with his bombs much better than they did four years ago. Not only that but Karlovic is very much a confidence player and he needs a few wins to get back on song.
He will not have a better chance than this week. The field is weak and the surface is almost tailor-made for his game with the multiple dodgy bounces making baseline play almost impossible. If Karlovic hits a groove with his serve-volley game he could be nigh unplayable.
Kudla is one of America's best young prospects, making the final of the US Open juniors last year. With a senior ranking of 411 he was given a wildcard this week and will be hoping to make a bit of an impression. However after a year playing mostly futures he is not ready to take down Karlovic just yet.
