Karlovic Prepares Rafter For McEnroe Final

Ahead of his eagerly anticipated final against John McEnroe on Tuesday evening, Pat Rafter was put through his paces by the tallest tennis player on the ATP World Tour, 6ft 10inch Ivo Karlovic in Delray Beach on Monday (photo: Matt Dunn).

Rafter, who qualified for Tuesday’s final despite losing his final round match match against Ronald Agenor on Monday 6-3, 3-6, 12-10 (Champions' Tie Break), was inspired to get some hard-hitting practice of his own after his final opponent McEnroe had a hit with ATP World Tour star James Blake yesterday. Rafter explained afterwards that hitting with the huge Croatian Karlovic was the ideal preparation for his final showdown with McEnroe.

“It’s perfect hitting with Karlovic before my final with McEnroe tomorrow,” he said. “I like hitting with guys that serve and volley and Ivo seems like a really nice guy and boy is he big. McEnroe does low little sliding shots which are quite similar to Ivo's so that’s been good preparation. It’s got me all pumped up for Johnny Mac tomorrow.”

However, Rafter did admit that he had shied away from the opportunity to face Karlovic’s notoriously huge serve.

“Thank God I didn’t face any of his serves today,” he said. “I would have had to guess which way to go and I wouldn’t have had any fun out there. I was sort of dreading it to be honest and I didn’t want to know too much about it!”

Rafter also confessed that he is feeling the pressure going into Tuesday’s final, especially as McEnroe is unbeaten this week having won his final round robin match on Monday against Johan Kriek 6-2, 6-2.

“He’s 51 and I’m just a young buck so I’m going to have to bring my A-game because he’s going to be so fired up to beat me,” said Rafter. “He was one of my idols growing up and sometimes it can be difficult to play the guys you looked up to when you were a kid so I’m just going to try and have fun.”

Earlier in the day at the Delray Beach ITC, Pat Cash and Mats Wilander both won their final round robin matches to secure second place finishes in their respective groups and set up a battle for 3rd place in tomorrow’s play-off match.

Cash defeated Aaron Krickstein 7-5, 2-6, 10-5 (Champions' Tie Break) in the second match of the day on Stadium Court, while Wilander took care of 1990 French Open Champion Andres Gomez 6-1, 6-4 in the first match of the evening session.

After Delray Beach, the ATP Champions Tour will move on to Zurich for the inaugural BNP Paribas Zurich Open (March 9-13), and after that will arrive in Bogota, Columbia for the city’s first ever ATP Champions Tour event (March 18-21).

To view the order of play and the round-robin groups, click Results.

For tickets to see McEnroe play in Delray Beach, click Tickets.