Karlovic beats Kyrgios for ATP semis age milestone

LOS ANGELES: Croatia’s 39-yearold Ivo Karlovic became the oldest ATP Tour semi-finalist since Jimmy Connors in 1993 by rallying past Australian Nick Kyrgios at the US Men’s Clay Court Championships.

World No. 88 Karlovic blasted 18 aces to defeat the 22-year-old Aussie fourth seed 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 92 minutes, advancing to a match-up against US eighth seed Tennys Sandgren, who advanced to his first ATP Tour semi-final by rallying past Argentina’s Guido Pella, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Not since Connors reached the last four at San Francisco a quarter-century ago has so old a player reached an ATP Tour last four.

Karlovic could become the oldest ATP Tour finalist since Ken Rosewall won the 1977 Hong Kong title at age 43.

“It’s definitely a huge win. I lost against him every match up until now,” Karlovic said.

“I’m really happy that I won today.”

Karlovic, who wasn’t broken after his first service game of the match, beat the 24th-ranked Aussie for the first time in five tries, having lost to Kyrgios at last year’s Miami and Cincinnati Masters and in 2015 at Kuala Lumpur and the Australian Open.

Sandgren, who had only two ATP Tour-level wins before this week, won his third match of the event after breaking twice in the second set, the first as Pella served for the match.

“I was proud of myself for just sticking it out,” Sandgren said. — AFP