Blake’s loss to Ivo Karlovic 6 – 7 (5), 4 – 6, 6 – 3, 7 – 6 (3), 7 – 5 came mostly because of Ivo’s huge serve.  He smacked 47 aces and came back from a two set deficit to beat James in Porec, Croatia Friday July 10th , 2009.

Mardy Fish also fought a battle against Marin Cilic.  After 4 hours and 23 minutes Cilic was able to claim victory 4 – 6, 6 – 3, 6 – 7  (3), 6 – 1, 8 – 6.

If only Andy Roddick was there the score would mostlikely be different from Croatia’s 2 – 0 lead over the US.  A hip injury prevented Roddick from being able to play.  One would think that the injury is much more mental than physical after his loss in the Wimbledon finals to Roger Federer.

Ivo was broken by Roger in the first set which gave roger the confidence boost he needed and the momentum to win the first set comfortably.  Roger was the first person to break his serve all tournament long which is a ridiculous statistic.

The service game of Ivo was strong, but that was about it.  He dumped many forehands into the net and wasn’t able to move well on any approach shots.  His game, beyond his serve, seems to be weak.  Compared to Roger Federer many players seem weak as he is no doubt the greatest to play the game, but one would think that a player of his level would have more shots in his arsenal.

Roger stayed strong and held his serve, which he knew he had to, in order to not get rolled over by the Giant’s serve. Ivo was not able to move fast enough to return many of Roger’s shots.

All in all it wasn’t the test of Roger’s skill that I expected.  It exposed Karlovic as a one trick pony while solidifying Federer’s dominance.

Fast Tube by Casper