Tennis: Karlovic powers past Paradorn

7.40am

LONDON - Croatian Ivo Karlovic showed he is developing a taste for Wimbledon upsets when he beat Thai 13th seed Paradorn Srichaphan 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the first round on Monday.

Last year, the 2.08m tall Karlovic was ranked 203 in the world and had to qualify for the grasscourt grand slam but caused one of the biggest shocks in tennis history by beating 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt in the first round.

Twelve months on from his dramatic grand slam debut, Karlovic showed the huge strides he has taken, an improvement that has lifted him to 62 in the world.

However, for much of the opening set it looked as if Karlovic's stay at the All England Club would be more fleeting this year as he struggled to handle Paradorn's attacking style.

Brimming with confidence after capturing his first grasscourt title at the Nottingham Open on Saturday, Paradorn had little trouble negotiating his opponent's huge serves.

A 45-minute rain-interruption midway through the fifth game of the match did little to stop the Thai from charging through the first set.

But it soon became evident that Paradorn was not going to have it all his own way.

Karlovic put the Thai under pressure from the opening game of the second and, after letting several break point opportunities slip from his grasp, the Croatian finally got his breakthrough in the seventh game with a stinging service return.

Having gained the advantage, the tallest man in professional tennis levelled the contest by tapping away an easy volley on set point.

Still reeling from allowing his opponent back into the match, Paradorn's game plan started to fall apart in the third.

Two more rain disruptions failed to dent Karlovic's concentration as he frustrated Paradorn with his whipped forehands from the baseline and his towering presence at the net.

With Paradorn failing to make any inroads on Karlovic's thunderbolt serve, the 25-year-old Croatian wrapped up a memorable win in two hours 12 minutes to set up a second-round clash against British wildcard Arvind Palmer or Gilles Elseneer of Belgium.

The result left Paradorn, who last year became the first Asian man to break into the world's top 10, ruing yet another miserable grand slam performance -- he has yet to advance beyond the fourth round of a major.

Men's singles first round matches (prefix number denotes seeding):

17-Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) beat Raemon Sluiter (Netherlands) 5-7 6-1 7-5 6-1

Gilles Elseneer (Belgium) beat Arvind Parmar (Britain) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-3)

Thomas Johansson (Sweden) beat 29-Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) 4-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-0

Goran Ivanisevic (Croatia) beat 31-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-2

Fabrice Santoro (France) beat Alberto Martin (Spain) 7-5 6-2 3-6 6-2

Stefan Koubek (Austria) beat Jose Acasuso (Argentina) 4-6 6-4 6-1 6-1

Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) beat 13-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-4

Alejandro Falla (Colombia) beat Julian Knowle (Austria) 2-6 6-3 6-1 6-3

Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Glenn Weiner (US) 6-4 6-4 6-4

7-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) beat Juergen Melzer (Austria) 6-2 6-4 6-2

1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Alex Bogdanovic (Britain) 6-3 6-3 6-0

- REUTERS