MELBOURNE, Australia -- They stand nearly 14 feet tall combined and win free points like it's nobody's business. On the surface, they should be unstoppable. But ...
Reilly Opelka, who at 6-foot-11 is the tallest player in professional tennis history, and Ivo Karlovic, who is only an inch shorter, both went down in consecutive days here at the Australian Open -- to a pair of under-6-foot opponents who hardly have what you'd consider golden arms.
On Wednesday, Opelka, a 21-year-old American, battered 67 aces, the fifth most in a single match since the ATP starting tracking them in 1991. But Opelka fell to Thomas Fabbiano in a fifth-set tiebreaker. Fabbiano, who is 15 inches shorter than his opponent, had two aces.
Then, on Thursday, Karlovic lit up the scoreboard with 59 aces but also lost in a fifth-set tiebreaker, against No. 8 Kei Nishikori. Nishikori, who is exactly a foot shorter than his opponent, had nice aces.
This isn't to say serving doesn't matter, because it obviously does. And this isn't to say tall guys can't win, because they can. But what we do know is that shorter guys with less-impressive stat sheets are seriously underrated.