Ivo Karlovic Through To The Pre-Quarters of Indian Wells 2019

The 40-year-old, Ivo Karlovic from Croatia knocks down the Indian, Prajnesh Gunneswaran who was on his career-best run at the Indian Wells 2019. He edged past Gunneswaran 6-3, 7-6 in the round-of-32 at the Californian Tennis Paradise. The qualifier, Gunneswaran had stunning victories against the Frenchman, Benoit Paire and the Georgian, Nikoloz Basilashvili before meeting the World Number 89, Ivo Karlovic.

The serve-and-volley tennis player, Ivo Karlovic wrapped up the first set with ease and whereas in the second set, both the ATP men were clinging to their serves and pushed the set into the tiebreaker and where the World Number 97, Prajnesh managed to pick up just three points against the fastest server, Ivo Karlovic who slammed 16 aces on Gunneswaran’s court.

The experienced tennis ace with an unusual flight of the service, Karlovic feels that he is growing young. “Obviously 40s are the new 30s so I’m young again. I like it,” he said. Almost every week, the nearly seven-feet tall ATP’s adept Ivo Karlovic becomes the oldest player to create certain records on the tennis court. Referring to Bob Bryan’s hip surgery, Ivo Karlovic said, “every week I am the oldest at something, so I don’t know. Next week it will be the oldest ever to walk without implants in his hip. Obviously it is nice that I’m still doing this, which I love, so hopefully, I can continue much longer. But if not, it’s also good.”

The year before, Ivo Karlovic was on the brink of his tennis career and was pensively considering his retirement from the sport. Since his job involves a lot of travelling and leaving his family behind back home makes it unfeasible for the Croatian. However, breaking back into the top 100 now has made him sanguine. “Now everything is better. When you begin to win more, everything’s good. I know that I will not continue forever so I’m trying to squeeze as much as I can”.