Roddick to Meet Karlovic in Final
Back to list >
© Getty ImagesKarlovic: Through to his first ATP final.
Andy Roddick will meet Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic in the final of the Stella Artois Championships on Sunday after contrasting wins in their semifinal matches.
Roddick moved a step closer to claiming his third consecutive title at The Queen's Club after a hard-fought three-set victory over fourth seed Radek Stepanek, while Karlovic booked a place in his first career ATP final with a 6-4, 7-6(7) win over sixth seed Thomas Johansson.
Roddick, champion at The Queen's Club in 2003-04, lost the second set but came through 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in 1 hour, 28 minutes, firing 11 aces en route to his 14th consecutive victory in the tournament. He is now one match away from joining John McEnroe and Lleyton Hewitt as the only players to have won three consecutive titles.
"That would be huge," said Roddick "I came in here a couple of years ago not ever having played that well on grass. To be going for a third, it's great. And to join names like that is pretty cool, too."
The No. 2 seed hasn't lost a match here since 2001, when he went down against Russian Mikhail Youzhny. Roddick, who has won two titles this year in San Jose and Houston, now has a 30-7 record in 2005.
In the semifinal against Stepanek - the first meeting between the two - Roddick broke the Czech in his first service game before opening up a 3-0 lead in the opening set. The American eventually took it in 27 minutes, but Stepanek hit back in the second. The Milan finalist broke the Roddick serve to lead 2-0 with an impressive forehand winner before doing so again in the eighth game to force a decider.
However, Roddick regained his composure in the third, breaking Stepanek to lead 2-1 and kept up the momentum, breaking again for 5-2 before serving out the match.
"He plays a really tricky game, kind of unpredictable," said Roddick of Stepanek. "I can see where his style would is very effective on grass because he hits the ball pretty flat, he's comfortable at net, he's comfortable serving and volleying. He was putting a lot of returns in the court there for a while. I think one of the biggest things that may go overlooked is how quick he is around the net. He was tough to pass. He was moving really quickly around the net. Even if you hit a good return, it felt like he was there. I think that was one of the things that surprised me."
Looking ahead to the final, Roddick added: "It's gonna be a lot of serving, and then there's going to be a couple of moments here and there that are going to be extremely tense. Someone's gonna try to convert on one of those. Who knows, but you have to kind of be there and stay the course and be mentally ready if you do get a chance and try to take it."
Meanwhile, Karlovic made the dream start to his first career ATP semifinal as he broke Johansson at the start of the match before taking the first set 6-4. The 6'10" Croat, who defeated three-time champion Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals, did not face a break point on his serve until 4-5 in the second set when he had to save a set point. He did so with one of his 19 aces and eventually forced a tie-break - his 20th in as many ATP matches this season.
Karlovic had two match points at 6-4 and thought he had booked a place in the final on his first, but Johansson's return dropped on the baseline. The Swede then had another set point on Karlovic's serve at 7-6, but the Croat saved that before completing a famous victory in 1 hour, 24 minutes.
"I'm very excited because it's my first final of the ATP tournament, so I am looking forward to tomorrow's match," said Karlovic. "Roddick plays unbelievable on the grass and he serves excellent. So it will be a typical match. I am looking forward to it."