Karlovic Retains Ace King Status In 2008

Towering Croat Ivo Karlovic earned the king of aces title for the second straight season, leading the ATP circuit with 961 aces in 2008.

The 6'10" Karlovic averaged 17.8 aces through 54 matches, achieving his highest total for the season with 42 in his second round win against Frenchman Florent Serra at the US Open. In a best-of-three-sets match, Karlovic fired 35 aces to Rafael Nadal's six in the Queen's Club quarterfinals but still came up on the losing end in a third-set tie-break.

Karlovic finished in the Top 10 of four of the six Ricoh ATP MatchFacts service games categories. In addition to being the ace leader, he was No. 1 in first serve points won, No. 2 in service games won and No. 8 in first serve percentage. He played in 61 tie-breaks during the season, compiling a 30-31 record.

This season also produced another noteworthy stat for Karlovic. At Masters Series Monte Carlo in April, the 29-year-old failed to serve an ace for the first time in 225 matches as he lost to France's Gael Monfils.

Karlovic's 17.8 aces per match was his lowest average since 2003, when he hit a circuit-best 17.6. Last year, the Croat averaged 20.6 aces in 64 matches to became just the fourth different player since 1991 to hit 1,000 aces in a season. His 1,318 aces placed him second behind countryman Goran Ivanisevic's record 1,477 in 1996.

American Andy Roddick, a member of the 1,000 aces club, finished second behind Karlovic with 889 aces in 62 matches. Roddick led the circuit with 1,017 aces in 2004 and 912 in 2005, and was No. 3 the past two years.

Roger Federer rounded out the Top 3 with 695 aces in 80 matches. The Swiss hit a record 39 aces in his epic third round victory over Serbian Janko Tipsarevic at the Australian Open.

Ricoh ATP MatchFacts Ace Leaders