Ivo Karlovic to face Monfils in ATP final
Ivo Karlovic's serve has carried him to a second consecutive final at age 37, earning a 6-4 6-4 win over fifth-seeded American Steve Johnson at the Citi Open in Washington.
The two metre tall Croatian, who is seeded 13th at the hard-court tournament, saved all five break points he faced on Saturday and broke Johnson in the third game of each set.
He won all 43 of his service games last week.
Karlovic will face No.2 seed Gael Monfils of France in Sunday's (Monday AEST) title decider.
Monfils, the 2011 runner-up at Washington, advanced by breaking Alexander Zverev four times in a 6-4 6-0 victory that lasted only an hour.
Monfils reached the 25th final of his career, but he's only won five.
He is 2-2 against Karlovic, but they haven't faced each other in five years.
"Ivo is the same," said Monfils, who has accumulated 15 breaks of serve this week.
"You know what to expect."
Last week, at the Newport grass-court tournament in Rhode Island, Karlovic became the oldest man since Marty Riessen in 1979 to win an ATP singles title.
