Karlovic, Clement Meet for Nottingham Title

No. 8 seed Arnaud Clement played and won both his quarterfinal and semifinal matches Friday, upsetting top seed and two-time defending champion Richard Gasquet and No. 4 seed Jonas Bjorkman, defeating both in straight sets. Having gone 4-1 in reaching the semifinals of Queen’s Club last week (notching his first Top 10 victory of the year, and the 16th of his career, en route against World No. 4 Novak Djokovic), he is now 8-1 on grass so far this season.

Clement is playing in his first ATP singles final of the year, and the 10th of his career. He owns four career titles, at 2000 Lyon, 2003 Metz, 2006 Marseille and 2006 Washington; he is a five-time runner-up, including at the Australian Open in 2001 (l. Agassi) and at the grass court event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2002 and 2003 (l. Schalken both times).

Unseeded Ivo Karlovic was the only player to get his quarterfinal match in before the rain on Thursday, so he played only one match Friday, upsetting No. 2 seed Dmitry Tursunov in a straight-set semifinal. Having gone 3-1 in reaching the quarterfinals at Queen’s Club in London last week, he is now 7-1 in ATP grass court events so far this season.

Karlovic is in his third ATP final of the year and fourth of his career. His first final was 2005 Queen’s Club (l. Roddick). This year he has won his first ATP title at Houston (d. Zabaleta in final) and was a runner-up at San Jose (l. Murray).

Karlovic’s service statistics this week have been outstanding. He leads the tournament in aces (80; the next-highest is Mathieu with 30) and service games won (50/50 for 100%; the next-highest is Garcia-Lopez with 33/35 and 94.3%).

Clement is 2-1 against Karlovic, winning both duels on grass, including just last week at Queen’s Club. (ATP Digital Services)