Dr. Ivo's plan was thwarted
Courtesy of an AP blurb in an Indian on-line paper (in case you somehow thought tennis wasn't an international sport) we have a bit of an update on what happened to John Isner and Ivo Karlovic, the world's tallest doubles team.
Isner and Karlovic fell to the Argentinian team of Agustin Calleri and Juan Pablo Brzezicki (an Italian surname and a Polish surname. You gotta love the Arengtinian melting pot). 7-6, 6-3.
The result proves that the teaming of the 6-9 Isner and the 6-10 Karlovic, while really cool in theory, wasn't going to automatically produce great results. Doubles is truly a team game, with both players needing to know what the other is going to do and where they're going to go on the court, at all times. Considering this was the first time Isner and Karlovic had played together, you can guess that they weren't quite in sync.
Plus, that slow surface in Australia made each big man's serve returnable. And those returns invariably wound up at the feet of Isner and Karlovic, the hardest spot for any tall tennis player to get to.
Afterward Isner said he'd probably join forces with Dr. Ivo again at Wimbledon, where the force of their gigantic serves should be awfully effective.
As for Isner, I'm still trying to catch up with him. He's now planning to spend next week at a Challenger tournament in Hawaii, before rejoining the ATP tour at a tournament in Delray Beach.
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