Karlovic – Johnson

Ivo Karlovic and Steve Johnson will meet in a high profile first round match at ATP Vienna, with both players looking to find some late season form.

Big Ivo Karlovic is on the back of a loss to Del Potro in the Stockholm quarterfinals, but his recent form is not exactly solid. Ivo lost 3 of his last 4 matches, with his only win coming against Elias Ymer in Stockholm, which is a bit surprising considering the fact that his huge serve should be a big asset on the fast indoor hard courts.

Johnson is in rather poor form himself, losing 4 of his last 5 matches, including a 0-2 loss against Albot in the first round at Stockholm in his last match. His only win during this period came against Klizan and, just like Karlovic, he will try to make one last push for a few good results at the end of this season.

Johnson leads the Head 2 Head 3-2 and he always played well against Karlovic. Johnson is a pretty good player against big servers and he usually does well in tiebreaks against them. He won 4 out of 6 against Ivo. However, Karlovic won the previous meeting just a few months ago at Washington, 6-4 6-4. Obviously, both guys have big serves and love the fast indoor hard here in Wien.

I will bet on a first set tiebreak here and my analysis is pretty simple. Obviously the fact that both have big serves (Ivo the strongest on tour) is the main reason, but I also think that both of them struggling lately will determine them to focus on serve at the start of the match, try to stay in it and not fall behind.

Interestingly, in the last 4 direct meetings a tiebreak was not played in the first set, but it was mostly just one point here and there that decided that. There were plenty of tiebreaks played in the matches between the two (6 in 12 sets, a 50% percentage). I feel there are very good chances for a tiebreak to occur in the first set here, the odds at Bwin are fantastic, so it makes for a good bet with medium stakes.

My tip is a tiebreak to happen in the first set. Prediction: Ivo Karlovic – Steve Johnson 6-7 6-4 6-7.

Pick: First set tiebreak – Yes
Odds: 2.20 @ Bwin
Stake: 6
Possible profit: 7.20
Event date: 24 October