Andy Murray will have to be at his returning best when he steps on Centre Court for his last 16 match on Monday against Ivo Karlovic – a man who has hit 136 aces so far in his first three matches at Wimbledon.
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Murray, the No 3 seed, has a solid 5-0 record against the 36-year-old Karlovic, including a second round win over the Croat in 2012.
Bidding to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon for an eighth consecutive year, Murray is wary of Karlovic’s cannon serves, which unleashes with ease thanks to his 2.11m height.
“Obviously he served extremely well this tournament. A couple matches he served over 40 aces,” said the 28-year-old Murray.
“In Halle, as well, he served I think the record for three sets with his match against Tomas Berdych. Extremely tough match. I’ll need to be very sharp on my returns and try and find a way to get as many of his serves back in play as possible and see what happens.
“But it’s obviously a very, very tricky match.”
Thanks for all the messages of the support during week one… 2nd on centre vs karlovic on Monday.. Fire it up for week 2
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) July 4, 2015
Asked to describe how advantageous it is to be this tall when it comes to serving, Murray added: “Clearly he can hit angles on the court that I’m unable to hit obviously on the serve because he’s probably got an extra foot or foot-and-a-half of height there with the length of his arm and the racquet. So that makes it very difficult to return.
“He serve-and-volleys, too. He’s a very solid volleyer. You can’t just pat the return back into play. You need to try to do something with it. So it’s tough.”
Murray needed medical treatment on his right shoulder during his four-set win over Andreas Seppi in the third round on Saturday and while he says it is not a major worry for him, it is a problem he has had for a few days now.
“It’s something I had the last two, three days. I only really feel it when I’m serving. But it’s not something that’s of major concern to me,” said the Scot.
“I played, I don’t know, 650, 700 matches in my career. I’ve played many matches where I’ve been in quite a lot of pain with my back. That was the case for almost two years. I was playing in quite a lot of pain at times. So I’m used to managing that and getting through it.
“It wasn’t something that happened just as I was on the court. It’s been like that for the last few days. The physios will back me up on that.
“It’s stiffness. And every time I finish a practice or anything, I have my back manipulated. Just now, the physio came on the court and said it was like a machine gun going off when he laid on top of me. Literally my back cracked a lot. And that’s been the case for the last few days.”
Lucky for Murray, he had the benefit of Middle Sunday yesterday to get some rest and get his mind off of tennis. Known to follow all the happenings of the tennis world, including finding streams to watch his fellow Brits while performing at Challenger tournaments around the globe, Murray admits he has been trying to switch from tennis while away from the court.
“I watched Toy Story 2 and I watched the first 45 minutes of Borat as well before bed,” Murray told BBC Radio 5 about his night before his third round match with Seppi.
“Before I used to watch Today at Wimbledon or those tennis shows. Whereas, after Heather’s match yesterday (Friday), I thought ‘right no more tennis tonight’ so watched a couple of movies.”
Top seed and defending champion, Novak Djokovic, the man who Murray beat to win Wimbledon in 2013, will also face a huge serve when he takes on South African Kevin Anderson on Monday.
Since losing to Anderson in their first meeting in 2008 in Miami, Djokovic has not dropped a set to the 2.03m No 14 seed as he leads him 4-1 head-to-head.
“Another big server and somebody that is in great form. I think he is probably playing the tennis of his life all in all,” Djokovic said of the 29-year-old Anderson.
“I think it’s going to be a game of very small margins that will be decided by a few points. So I need to be able to get as many returns back in play. I’ll try to mix up the pace.”
Djokovic is looking to reach his 25th consecutive grand slam quarter-final. His current streak of 24 places him in third place in the Open Era behind Roger Federer (36) and Jimmy Connors (27).
