Karlovic to face Young in Delray Beach final
Karlovic, 35, will be playing in his 13th ATP tour final.
DELRAY BEACH, United States (AFP) - Fourth seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic pounded 17 aces, overpowering fifth-seeded Adrian Mannarino on Saturday to reach the ATP Delray Beach Open final.
Karlovic, ranked 29th in the world, saved all five break points he faced in the 70-minute match. He ll face American Donald Young, a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 winner over Australian Bernard Tomic.
Karlovic, 35, will be playing in his 13th ATP tour final. He last captured a trophy at Bogota in July of 2013.
Young, 25, withstood 13 aces from Australia s Tomic and saved seven of 10 break points he faced.
Young also beat Tomic in a three-setter in Memphis last week.
The 25-year-old US southpaw, ranked 56th in the world, overcame eight double faults in the windy weather and sealed the win with a service break.
"My goal was to be more aggressive, move forward, not give (Tomic) too much time to start planning his attack because once he gets you on a string of the way he wants you to play it s tough to get off of it," Young said.
On Sunday, the American will be playing his second tour-level final. In his only other championship match he lost to Andy Murray in Bangkok in 2011.
"I lost pretty badly," Young recalled of that final, adding that he didn t think it would take another four years to get another title shot.
"It s tough to get to the finals," said Young, who is vying to become the third first-time winner on the ATP tour this year.
"It s not something you do every day," added Young, who upset third-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in the quarter-finals. "There have been other things that I felt were holding me back. It wasn t just my game, it was about the consistency, the mental part and putting together back-to-back matches. I m happy I m able to do that lately."
