Karlovic aces Fish out of SAP Open

Ivo Karlovic used his big serve to knock another seeded American out of the SAP Open, recording 17 aces Friday to beat fifth-seeded Mardy Fish 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

The unseeded Croatian followed up his three-set win Thursday over second-seeded James Blake, when he had 29 aces, with another strong serving match against Fish on the quick court in San Jose.

"I feel like each match I have gotten better so far," Karlovic said. "I'm very happy to make the semifinals."

Karlovic will play sixth-seeded Benjamin Becker in one semifinal Saturday. Becker beat fourth-seeded Marat Safin 6-4, 6-3, avenging a loss in the first round of the Australian Open last month.

In the night matches Friday, top-seeded Andy Roddick was to play fellow American Vince Spadea, and defending champion Andy Murray was scheduled to face Lee Hyung-taik.

With his serve topping 140 mph at times and coming at odd angles from his 6-foot-10 frame, Karlovic never faced a break point on his serve and won 28 of his final 30 points on serve to put away Fish.

"It just doesn't really seem like tennis," Fish said. "It's not very often you play a match and you're excited when it gets to 40-30. ... You feel like if you play a baseline game to 10 or 11 you'd win every time. But that's not what we're doing here."

Karlovic got the only break of the match in the third game of the second set, taking advantage of a double fault and net-cord winner to earn two break points. Fish saved one with a service winner, but then missed wide with a forehand to lose the game. He slammed his racket to the court in frustration, figuring his chances of breaking Karlovic were slim.

Karlovic proved that to be true, holding his serve at love the next game when Fish couldn't get a single return in the court during the game. In fact, Fish managed to get only four serve returns in the court in the final set, never once threatening Karlovic, who advanced to his first semifinal since last February in Las Vegas.

Despite his big serve, Karlovic is ranked 103rd in the world and has never won an ATP tournament. He was in the top 50 briefly in 2006 before a knee injury slowed him the second half of the year.

"Last year I was 48th and on the way up," he said. "That's when I got injured. If I wasn't injured, who knows where I would have ended up?"

Fish's best chance at a break came at 5-all in the opening set, when Karlovic opened the game with a double fault and a volley into the net. Fish missed wide on a lob on the following point and Karlovic recovered with a 137 mph ace and two service winners to hold serve.

Fish was nearly as dominant on his serve most of the first set, winning 18 of 19 points during a stretch leading up to the tiebreaker. But he hit a forehand long on his first service point of the tiebreaker to fall behind 2-0 and then hit a backhand into the net to give Karlovic a 5-2 lead. Karlovic served out the set with a 134 mph ace and a service winner.

"You get into a tiebreaker and every point is so big," Fish said. "You haven't hit very many balls the entire set, You get into it and he puts two balls in the court and you kind of panic because it's the longest point you've had in 24 hours. You miss an easy shot and all of a sudden the set is basically over."

It's now up to Becker to solve Karlovic's serve, which has been broken just once in 39 service games this tournament.

"It's going to be tough to return," Becker said. "He gained a lot of confidence after beating Blake and Fish. It's going be tough to play him with confidence. If he's good on his serve, he knows he has nothing to lose on my service games because if he serves well he knows he can hold his serve easily."

Becker got the only two breaks of his match against Safin. He had lost 11 straight points on Safin's serve until a double fault on the first point of the 10th game gave him the opening. Becker took advantage and earned the break that gave him the set.

Becker then got an early break in the second set and put the match away on his serve. He had six aces in the second set and held serve at love to win the match.

"I felt like I played well from the back," Becker said. "I tried to make him play a lot and not go for a lot on his service. I wanted to make him earn the points in his service games. I think I returned solidly."