Ivo Karlovic is one of those unusual players.  He grew up poor, so he didn’t get all the lessons the top juniors got and practiced the one thing you can practice by yourself: his serve.  Karlovic not only hits the biggest serve in tennis, he is pretty consistent too.  Like Roddick, Karlovic hits about 70% of his first serves in, and this is daunting because this means he often holds his serve easily.

One can only imagine what would happen if he had had proper training off the bat.  Perhaps he would have a formidable backhand, or move a little better.  He might be a solid top 25 player instead of flitting in and out of the top 40.  When you see a serve as big as Karlovic’s, you know that a top champion a la Pete Sampras, with a huge serve that he can hold easily and formidable groundstrokes might be able to dominate the game.  Roddick was supposed to be that player, but even Roddick doesn’t have Karlovic’s intimidating serve, one that most opponents barely touch if it’s humming.

As an opponent, you have to hope you see a few first serves you can get a racquet on.  And Karlovic knows if you get a return on his first serve, it’s likely to float, so he will come in and attack.  Even if you get a serve back, Karlovic has a world-class forehand.  Everyone seems to think he is a serve and nothing else, but he could beat plenty of college players with just his ground game.  Sure, it’s not top 100 in quality, but it’s good enough to exchange rallies with the best in the world.

The top players generally hold their serves, get Karlovic into rallies he can’t win.  Karlovic, therefore, will go for big returns and big forehands to shorten the points.

Today, he played Nikolay Davydenko.  Davydenko got injured at Indian Wells, with a broken left wrist.  He didn’t return back on tour until just before Wimbledon.  His game was pretty much off the rest of the year.  He had signed a deal with Dunlop shortly after the Australian Open, and they promised him a racquet (which still looks a lot like his Prince).

But Davydenko seems to be regaining his form.  He can return serves as well as anyone, had an early break in the first set against Karlovic, then a late one in the second set, to seal a 6-3, 7-5 win.  Karlovic had a chance to break, but Davydenko eked his way out of that match.

Rafael Nadal claimed he has had a fever, which explains his 6-0 second set bagel to Lukas Lacko.  He said he might not be 100%.  Gulbis pushed Nadal to a tiebreak, but hit an ill-advised drop shot that didn’t clear the net and lost the tiebreak.  He then dropped the second set, 6-3.  The commentators said that Gulbis needs to cut out the crap in his game to move a level up, and given how much he mishit the dropper, it seems like sage advice.

Roger Federer had a surprisingly easy match against sixth seed, Victor Troicki, taking him out, 6-2, 6-2.  Tsonga, by contrast, needed two tiebreaks to beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who upset Nadal last year in Bangkok.  Tsonga will face Federer while Nadal will face Davydenko, the man who beat him in last year’s final.

In Chennai, quarterfinalists have been decided.  Top-seeded, Tomas Berdych, faces Slovenian, Blaz Kavcic, who beat American Robert Kendrick in the previous round.  As expected, Stan Wawrinka will face Robin Haase, though both had tough matches to beat qualifiers to reach the quarters.  Malisse will face Phau and Nishikori will play Tipsarevic.

In Brisbane, tall Kevin Anderson will face Andy Roddick in the semis.  Anderson beat Giraldo while Roddick had a fairly easy win over Baghdatis.  In the remaining quarters, top seed, Robin Sodelring will play Australian, Matthew Ebden who upset Denis Istomin in the previous round.  Czech Radek Stepanek who missed muc of last year will take on German, Florian Mayer, to get into the semis.

In the Hopman Cup Group A play, Australia beat Kazkhastan while Serbia lost to Belgium.  There are 3 teams in Group A with 2-1 records, with Serbia leading matches won-lost and should qualify for the finals.  Today, Group B completes its matches.  Italy plays France while the US plays Great Britain.  US has a fairly good shot of making it to the finals, and will definitely make it if they beat Great Britain.  Even if they lose, there’s a good chance of making it in.