Hard-serving Ivo Karlovic officially announces retirement

Ivo Karlovic has officially announced his retirement from tennis after having not played a tournament match in 2 1-2 years.

The 2.11-meter (6 foot, 11-inch) Croatian said in a post Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, that "I've had a very gratifying, unorthodox and long career coming from extremely humble beginnings, especially for a tennis player."

The 44-year-old Karlovic — he will turn 45 next week — played his last ATP match in a second-round qualifying loss at Indian Wells, California in October 2021. His last Grand Slam tournament match was a first-round singles loss at the U.S. Open about six weeks earlier.

He finished his 25-year career with eight singles titles and a record of 371 wins, 346 losses and $10.1 million in prize money. His highest singles ranking was at No. 14 in August 2008.

His best Grand Slam singles performance was at Wimbledon in 2009, when he advanced to the quarterfinals. He also won the Davis Cup in 2005 with Croatia when it beat Slovakia in the final for the country's first title.

He finished his career with 13,728 aces, second behind John Isner with 14,470. Karlovic has the most aces in a best-of-three-set match with 45 at Halle in 2015 and two weeks later at Wimbledon became the only player to hit at least 40 aces in three consecutive matches.

Six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker was among those to congratulate Karlovic on X, calling his serve "the best in tennis."

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis