Ivo Karlovic makes light work of Dustin Brown to reach Newport semi

Next up for Karlovic on Saturday will be USA fourth seed Jack Sock, who advanced when Czech qualifier Jan Hernych retired with a left knee injury after holding serving in the opening game of their match. “I had to connect on a few”, said Ram, who won all five of his service points in the third set tiebreaker.

At an age when many of his contemporaries have moved on, Karlovic is producing one of the best seasons of his career.

Ram saved two match points before battling past fifth-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 2-6 7-6(8) 7-6(2), while Smith fended off Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-3 6-7(2) 6-3.

July 18 (Reuters) – American Rajeev Ram continued his love affair with Newport as he booked his place in the Hall of Fame Tennis Championship final with a 6-4 7-6(4) victory over Australia’s John-Patrick Smith in Rhode Island on Saturday. “These courts help what I do well”.

“I go out there and I’m pretty confident with what I do is going to be tough to beat”, he said. “I did the normal warmup and right when I saw that the (doubles) match was about to finish, I did another 20, 30 serves just so my arm was warm and ready to go straight on court”. Though that might spell an advantage for a rested Sock, Karlovic has also been playing well during the championships, defeating Illya Marchenko in three sets, Malek Jaziri and Brown each in two. After saving one match point, Sock hit a forehand into the net.

Smith double-faulted on the first game of the tiebreaker.

“This is a match that if you put seven first serves in, the match can be over”, Brown said. “That was probably the key to the match”.