Karlovic ousts Devvarman

WASHINGTON — In the early going of Thursday night’s third-round match at the Legg Mason Classic between Somdev Devvarman and Ivo Karlovic, Karlovic, a 6-foot-10, 230-pounder from Croatia, drilled a first serve that clipped the top of the net. The serve, which was likely in excess of 140 miles per hour, left a dent in the net that could be seen from several rows up the
grandstand.
This is what Devvarman, the former Virginia star, had to deal with as he tried for his second upset in as many nights — one of the hardest and most intimidating serves in men’s tennis.
The Chennai, India native battled as best he could, but in the end Karlovic’s bombs were just too much to handle. The 33rd-ranked Karlovic, thanks to 14 aces, defeated Devvarman 7-5, 6-1 to move into tonight’s quarterfinals against Andy Roddick. Karlovic also avenged a January loss to Devvarman at the Chennai Open.
“It’s really hard to read a guy’s serve like that,” Devvarman said. “Even when you do read it, there’s not much you can do with it. I think he did a really good job of holding his serve.
“I did well to keep some pressure on him the whole first set, but then I played a couple of sloppy games — the kind of stuff that’s keeping me from getting to the next level. To get better, I’m going to have to stop those kinds of things from happening.”
Devvarman, who once again had great fan support from a large Cavalier contingent, never came close to breaking Karlovic’s serve. In fact, he never had a break point.
His best chance came when he was already trailing, 4-1, in the second set. Devvarman was up 30-15, but Karlovic answered with two aces and a service winner to take a 5-1 lead that all but sealed the victory.
“A lot of it is hoping he misses the first serve because you can do a lot with his second serve,” said Devvarman, when asked about his strategy against the hard-hitting Croatian. “I think that’s what players better than me do. They make him feel a little pressure on his second serve.
“But when he’s serving first serves well, it’s pretty hard for anybody to do much with that ball.”
In the first set, Devvarman went toe to toe with Karlovic. He even fired two aces of his own to hold serve at 4-all.
But leading 6-5, Karlovic hit two baseline winners and smashed home a volley to break Devvarman and close out the set.
In the second set, Karlovic broke Devvarman to go up 3-1 and pulled away quickly. Fittingly, he closed out the match with an ace. Karlovic had a 63-percent first-serve percentage on the night, winning 90 percent of those points.
For Devvarman, who had beaten 15th-ranked Marin Cilic on Wednesday, it was still a successful tournament, considering he had to fight his way through qualifying just to get into the main draw. The 153rd-ranked Devvarman will now play a Challenger event in Binghamton before heading to New York for the U.S. Open qualifiers.
“I feel like the summer’s started off on the right kind of note,” Devvarman said. “I’m going to continue to put in the work and hopefully have a good run at Binghamton.”