Karlovic Mows Down Ljubicic at ATP NottinghamPosted on June 16, 2005  Six-foot-10 giant Ivo Karlovic ousted top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(1) Wednesday at the ATP stop in Nottingham, downing his Croat countryman to advance into the quarterfinals.For Karlovic it was the second consecutive week of taking out a top seed after upending former No. 1 and Wimbledon champ Lleyton Hewitt en route to the final at Queen's. Also into the quarters Wednesday were six of the eight seeds in (2) Thomas Johansson (d. Berdych in two tiebreaks), (4) Richard Gasquet (d. (WC) Marray), (5) Taylor Dent (d. American countryman (Q) Rettenmaier in three), defending champ (6) Paradorn Srichaphan (d. (Q) Vacek in two tiebreaks), (7) Olivier Rochus (d. Beck), and (8) Max Mirnyi (d. H.-T. Lee). "He's a good player on grass so it was tough at the beginning but I got better as the match went on," Gasquet said of the Brit Marray. "I feel like my game is getting better on grass and I think I can play very well on this surface and I'm looking forward to Wimbledon." Denmark's Kenneth Carlsen joined Karlovic as the second unseeded entry into the quarters, upsetting (3) Dominik Hrbaty in straight sets. The Thursday quarterfinal line-up will be (6) Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan vs. (4) Gasquet, (5) Taylor "Acci-" Dent vs. (2) T.Johansson, "Dr." Ivo Karlovic vs. (7) Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, and Carlsen vs. (8) Max "The Beast" Mirnyi. "I played Gasquet not long ago on clay and he beat me easily so we'll see how it goes tomorrow," said Srichaphan on his meeting with the French wunderteen. "I'm not thinking about defending my title. I'm in the quarterfinals already and I just think about it one match at a time so that there is less pressure." |
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