Professional tennis player, King of Aces. Greatest server of the
ball the world has ever seen. Growing up in
war-torn Croatia, he was born with nothing. He didn't even have a tennis coach, and being
6'11", teachers would try and coerce him towards
basketball. But he would never let his tennis dream go. He snuck out on to tennis courts every day by himself and hit serves. Nothing but serves. He trained so much that his serve became the most powerful stroke of the
ball the world had ever seen, One Punch Man style. Starting with nothing, he could now end any and every tennis point with just a
single stroke of the
ball. He went professional without any skill at keeping the tennis ball in play, but won all his tournaments - just with his serve.
Since becoming professional, he has broken records for height, serve and age. Tallest professional player ever, most aces by any player ever, oldest player to win tournaments since Ken Rosewall an eternity back, most tie-breaks played in
history. In
one three-set match against top player
Tomas Berdych, he hit 45 aces - close to a 50% ace rate on serve. Ivo Karlovic also has a 3-1 winning record against Novak Djokovic (all competitions), and ended Roger Federer's record-breaking 237-week streak at world #1 with an astounding 7-6 4-6 7-6 upset victory in Cincinnati 2008.
Ivo Karlovic showed the world how you can become the very best at
one specific thing, and use it to make a name for yourself.
Ivo Karlovic serving........it's an ace!
Jerry has this niche skill he's really, really
good at...it doesn't
spark much attention, but I
don't think there's anyone better than him at it. He's truly the Ivo Karlovic of the engineering world.