Croatian Ivo Karlovic became the oldest man to reach the third round of a grand slam for 25 years when the 37-year-old came through a marathon five-setter against Australian Jordan Thompson at the French Open yesterday.
Karlovic, seeded 27, banged down 41 aces in a 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 12-10 victory against the 22-year-old wildcard. He broke serve at 10-10 and sealed a memorable victory with a volley after four hours and 31 minutes, the longest match of this year’s tournament so far.
Jimmy Connors reached the third round at the French and U.S. Opens in 1991, aged 38.
Karlovic will face either second seed Andy Murray or France’s Mathias Bourgue for a place in the last 16 at Roland Garros for the first time.

Former top 10 Dimitrov struggling with slump
One-time prodigy Grigor Dimitrov admits his tennis is stalling as he lost for a third straight time in a French Open first round. The Bulgarian once promoted as “baby Federer” has failed miserably to live up to the hype over the past half decade or more and now finds himself without a major coach and in a slump with nowhere to turn.
“I’ve lost a lot of confidence in myself,” Dimitrov told Dubai’s Sport 360 after a five-set Roland Garros loss to Viktor Troicki. “It’s not easy to come off losing those close matches. In the past I’ve been winning them. That gives you a lot of confidence and motivation, overall I’ve lost a lot of that,” added the former top 10 player, now ranked 36th.
“I’ve been there before but this time it’s just kind of different. Sometimes it’s just really scary. But I’m positive and happy to come out and work and work and work, that never scares me. What scares me is that I’m really not finding a way and usually I’m pretty good at bouncing back, whether it’s from a loss or something else. A lot of losses have always motivated me - just right now it’s not happening.”
Dimitrov won his last match in an Istanbul semi-final on April 30, then went into meltdown as he smashed his racquet set a day later and handed over the final to Argentine opponent Diego Schwartzman.
“I’m just fighting to find a solution. I’m disappointed, very disappointed, it’s my third French Open in a row that I’m losing in the first round, it’s not like I’m playing bad on clay or anything.”