I think it's safe to say that for most Americans, the Australian Open is something of the lost Grand Slam of tennis. Played for the most part while most of America is snug in bed in the middle of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it's easy to forgive most folks for having the NFL Playoffs, the NBA and NCAA Basketball on their minds this time of year.
That's too bad, especially this year as the Australian Open features at least one quirky story that tennis fans ought to be paying attention to, at least outside of Serena Williams needing a course in remedial blogging. What I'm talking about is the interesting men's doubles pairing of 6-10 Ivo Karlovic and 6-9 John Isner.
As Joe Fleming of USA Today wrote yesterday:
Consider: With their wingspans - Karlovic about 7 feet, 2 1/2 inches and Isner 7-1 1/2 - plus an additional 27 inches of racket on either side, they can gobble up nearly two-thirds of the 36-foot width of the court. One big step covers the rest.That's the two of them pictured above with Justin Heinz, the shortest ball boy at the Open this year.
And both can bring 130- to 140-mph heat on their serves; Karlovic led the ATP Tour in aces in 2007 (1,318 total, 20.6 a match).
