In the first round of the Wimbledon, young tennis player Borna Coric will take on Ivo Karlovic. The nineteen will be trying to win his first match in the grass.
Two weeks ago at the Gerry Webber Open he was beaten by David Goffin in the first round 7-6 6-7 6-4. Karlovic will be proceeding his solid game in the three calendar Grand Slam.
2016 Results
It has been a good year for Borna Coric so far. In his first event in 2016 only Stanislas Wawrinka kept him out the final. However, first Grand Slam Australian Open wasn't excellent. The Spaniard, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, beat Borna in three straight sets. Miami Open and Indian Wells weren't great, cumulatively in both tournaments he won two matches. In Marrakech he stopped his bad play and booked second final this year, but the Argentinian Federico Delbonis defeated him. One of his best tournaments was Estoril Open. He got the quarterfinal.
Roland Garros was better Grand Slam for him. Borna's wins against young Taylor Fritz and dangerous Bernard Tomic were very good. He finally showed his best. Unfortunatelly, the next Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut disrupted Coric's plans about better palmares.
This is the second match on grass for Coric this season. As, mentioned earlier, the Croatian was trying his best in Halle. The draw didn't conduce him. The Belgian tennis player was too strong to beat him.
Ivo Karlovic has played more matches than Borna, but his start was horrible. He lost six matches in a row, two were finished by withdrawals. In Australia he completed his one in this way. At the BNP Paribas Instabul Open he reached the semifinal, where he faced Grigor Dimitrov and lost in two sets.
The Croatian can add Roland Garros to successful tournaments. In the first round, without problems he beat Albert Montantes. The second round wasn't as easy as previous meeting. With difficulty he won against talented Jordan Thompson in five sets. His next opponent was Andy Murray. Ivo didn't manage with fantastic play of the Scot. However, Karlovic showed us his best.
Karlovic gets along on the grass very well. At the Ricoh Open won two matches, in the semifinal he dropped out. In Halle Ivo went down after his second match. However, these tournaments gave him more confidence to fight at the Wimbledon. We can notice that Karlovic really likes this surface. In 2009 he reached here quarterfinal.
Head-to-head
The Croatians have played only once. Their match happened quite recently, last year in Bucharest. The better tennis player this duel was Ivo Karlovic, who beat his countryman 3-6 6-3 6-4.
Styles of play on this surface
Both players use right-handed backhand, Ivo plays one-handed, Borna two-handed. Every fan of tennis knows that Karlovic is the most talented for serve and the tallest tennis player. He is the absolute leader in this, no one is better. He uses serve and volley well. A lot of people expect that this is really annoying. He sometimes serves four aces in one game and then it is his. His first serve functions excellent. Borna is worse in this category. He should improve his service to be better. Coric still does a lot of double faults. "I think my game is quite similar to Djokovic's. I move well, I don't miss many balls, I'm a fighter and my backhand is my best shot," said Borna. Both players don't think that return is the most important in his games. They seldom use this one.
This match will be really interesting. Karlovic and Coric prefer other styles of play. And with both being Croatian, pride will be at stake.. We will see who win - young tennis star or big, experienced veteran.
Prediction: Ivo Karlovic in four sets.