Giant Croat Ivo Karlovic battered his way into the semifinals of the ATP Halle tournament, smashing 45 aces past a bewildered Tomas Berdych en route to a 7-5, 6-7(8), 6-3 victory on Friday.
The 36-year-old Karlovic, who stands 2.11-m tall, now has 94 aces here on the Halle grasscourts from three rounds of tennis. Another Croat, Goran Ivanisevic, holds the all-time record for aces with a total tally of 10,183; Karlovic is second with 9,593.
Anderson in semifinals At Queen’s Club, South Africa’s Kevin Anderson powered into the semifinals with a 7-6(7), 7-5 victory against Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Anderson was appearing in the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon warm-up event for the third time in four years and the world No. 17 finally made it to the last-four after bludgeoning Garcia-Lopez into submission.
The results: At London: Aegon Championships: Quarterfinals: Kevin Anderson bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6(7), 7-5.
Second round: John Isner bt Feliciano Lopez 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 7-6(4).
Doubles: Quarterfinals: Daniel Nestor & Leander Paes bt Marc Lopez & Rafael Nadal 7-6(3), 6-4.
At Halle: Gerry Weber Open: Quarterfinals: Ivo Karlovic bt Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-7(8), 6-3.
Second round: Gael Monfils bt Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6(1), 6-4.
At Birmingham: WTA AEGON Classic: Quarterfinals: Angelique Kerber bt Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-4; Kristina Mladenovic bt Simona Halep 2-6, 6-0, 7-6(4); Karolina Pliskova bt Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-2.
