Ivo’s Big Regret

Thirty-nine year old Ivo Karlovic, who faces German Jan-Lennard Struff in the Wimbledon second round on Wednesday, has accomplished much to be proud of during his 19-year career. He’s won eight tour-level titles, including five since he entered his mid-30s. He’s hit more than 12,700 aces and has earned more than $9 million in prize money.

Earlier this year, he became the oldest player to reach the Australian Open third round in 40 years, since 44-year-old Ken Rosewall in 1978.

But Karlovic, like most working folks, would still handle a thing or two differently if he could do over his career. Namely, he’d change his one-handed backhand. The 6’11” right-hander holds 92 per cent of the time, but, like other big servers, he struggles to break, winning only nine per cent of his return games, according to his Infosys ATP Scores & Stats.

But a better backhand, Karlovic thinks, more specifically, a two-handed backhand would have helped him break more often throughout his career.

“The No. 1 thing that I always regret is not having a two-handed backhand. Because I think in today’s game it would be a lot easier to return the ball,” Karlovic told ATPWorldTour.com. “Plus, I don’t know anybody who is tall and has a one-handed backhand, because it’s really difficult. When I was young, if I had a different coach, probably I would be even better.”

Few coaches, at the time, though, were teaching two-handed backhands, and the ATP World Tour stars Karlovic watched on TV while growing up in Croatia in the 1980s and ’90s – John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg – all had one-handed backhands.

Watch: Ace King Karlovic Continues To Thrive

But at least tennis didn’t lose the well-liked and easy-going Dr. Ivo because of frustration. That’s more that can be said for basketball.

Karlovic tried out the sport when he was 13. The Croatian was barely a teenager but he was already 6’6” and, because of tennis, could cut well and run the floor. So coaches made him practise with 18- and 19-year-olds. That didn’t go well with Karlovic. He quit after six months and never went back, despite five years of calls from the basketball coaches.

“They were on the phone every day, calling me to come back, years after that, every day. Unbelievable. But I was always saying no,” Karlovic said. “The last time they called me was when I was 18.”

The big man, however, has no immediate plans of stopping tennis. So long as he’s healthy and able to play the big tournaments, such as Wimbledon, he’ll be on court.

“It’s all about injuries, health and motivation,” Karlovic said. “Right now I’m healthy and motivated, so as long as my [ATP] Ranking is up where I can be at all the events, I will not think about retiring.”