Ageless Karlovic

37-year-old saves all 5 break points, will face Monfils in pursuit of 2nd straight title

Serves power 37-year-old into Citi Open final

WASHINGTON — Even Ivo Karlovic willingly concedes that whatever success he has on a tennis court is due mainly to his big serve.

Well, that one stroke is in fine form at the moment, and so is Karlovic, closing in on a second consecutive title at age 37.

Karlovic saved all five break points he faced Saturday and ran his service-game record to 43-for-43 this week, beating fifth-seeded American Steve Johnson, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the Citi Open final.

“This is my game. This is my strength,” said the 6-foot-11 Karlovic, a Croatian seeded 13th at the hard-court tournament.

He broke Johnson in the third game of each set, right after saving break points on his own serve.

“It’s definitely frustrating when you have chances, you don’t take ’em, and you lose your focus for a second and you lose serve,” said Johnson, a 26-year-old from California who eliminated top-seeded John Isner in the quarterfinals.

“And that’s the margin when you play a guy [like] Ivo, [who] pretty much only has a serve.”

Karlovic will face No. 2-seeded Gael Monfils today. Monfils, the runner-up at Washington in 2011, advanced by breaking No. 7 Alexander Zverev four times in a 6-4, 6-0 victory.

“There’s only one Ivo,” said Monfils, who has accumulated 15 breaks of serve this week. “You’ve got one shot.”

In the women’s semifinals, No. 7 Yanina Wickmayer beat No. 6 Yulia Putintseva, 6-4, 6-2, and 122nd-ranked Lauren Davis defeated 173rd-ranked Jessica Pegula, 6-2, 6-3, in a matchup of 22-year-old Americans. Wickmayer, who won the doubles title with Monica Niculescu on Saturday, will be appearing in her 11th WTA singles final, while Davis will be in her first.

Last week, at the grass-court tournament in Newport, R.I., Karlovic became the oldest man since 1979 to win an ATP singles title. Now he is into another final, the 16th of his career. He is 7-8.

In the 25 years that ATP service stats cover, Karlovic leads the tour with nearly 11,000 career aces and by winning 92 percent of his service games. He began Saturday averaging 22 aces per match at the Citi Open and finished the semifinal with 14, including a pair at 134 mph and 132 mph on the last two points.

Johnson serves well, too, and he came into the semifinal having held in all 32 of his service games, saving seven of seven break points. Those streaks did not last long. In Johnson’s second service game, less than 15 minutes in, he missed a shot at deuce to hand over a break point and angrily smacked at a ball. Then, with both men at the net, Karlovic lunged for a backhand volley winner to go up 2-1.

The previous game, Karlovic’s first on serve, represented a terrific chance for Johnson to steal a break.

Struggling to see the ball on his toss, Karlovic donned sunglasses but still double-faulted three times, helping create two break points. But he erased the first with a 130 mph service winner, and the second with an ace at the same speed.

In the second set, Karlovic broke by delivering back-to-back return winners on his way to a 41-17 edge in winners.