Mystery illness resolved, Ivo Karlovic is a winner again

New York: Towering Croatian Ivo Karlovic became the second-oldest champion this year on the ATP Tour on Sunday, winning the Claro Open Colombia in Bogota with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Alejandro Falla. It was the 34-year-old Karlovic’s fifth career singles title and first since 2008.

Ranked 155th in the world, the 6-foot-10 (2.08m) Karlovic dominated the tournament with his high-bouncing serve, hitting 104 aces in five matches.

His serve, which has been clocked as fast as 156 mph (251 km/h), rocketed through the thin air of the Colombian capital, which has an elevation of 8,612 feet (2,624 metres). He became the second player this year to win a title without dropping his serve, holding all 61 of his service games.

Show of strength

But the numbers do not do justice to Karlovic or his strength he showed this week. Just over two months ago, he was hospitalised for two weeks with viral meningoencephalitis, which caused unbearable headaches and left him numb, convulsing and unable to remember his name.

In a recent interview, Karlovic recalled a morning in late April between Challenger-level tournaments when he suddenly felt ill.

“I woke up, and then my arm was numb and I was not really able to talk,” he said.

When he continued to slur his speech, Karlovic’s wife, Alsi, called 911.

“And then paramedics came and they gave me IV,” he said. “But then they left, because after that I was better.”

Within hours of the paramedics’ exit, Karlovic’s condition deteriorated.

“After they left, I began to vomit, and there was headaches — a lot,” he said. “And then like every hour I was less conscious. So my wife took me to ER, and then from that point on I was less and less there, you know? I was not able to answer what’s my name; I didn’t know which year was it. And there was headaches — unbelievable.”

Three days into his hospitalization, the illness was diagnosed. Similar to meningitis, it results in brain swelling and strokelike symptoms, including slurred speech, confusion, numbness and seizures.

“It was difficult, you know?” he said. “Doctors didn’t know if I will recover all the way, because there is cases that don’t. But there is also cases that do. So they didn’t really know.”

Karlovic needed four days in the intensive care unit of a Miami hospital before he could remember his name, and five days for the numbness in his right arm and face to subside. His severe headaches stopped after 10 days, helped by strong pain medications.

“Thankfully I was out of it only for, like, four days,” he said. “If it was longer than that, I would have had more consequences.”

Karlovic, normally an active Twitter user with a mischievously crude sense of humour, found it tiring to simply hold his phone when first hospitalised, leaving him disconnected from the outside world.

“I was in my own world,” he said. “They were also giving me all this pain medicine, like Dilaudid, morphine. I mean that was a little bit helping, but I was also high, so I didn’t really know what else was going on.”

Karlovic, who continues to take an anti-seizure medication, was discharged from the hospital after two weeks. One month after he left the hospital, he began to practice again, but he was initially too tired to last more than five minutes. He gradually worked up to 10- and then 15-minute sessions, and eventually he began to enter tournaments again.

After his request for a wild card into Wimbledon was turned down, Karlovic returned last week in Newport, R.I., where he made the quarterfinals. He then flew to Bogota and claimed the title that will put him back in the top 100. He will continue his comeback this week with a special exemption to enter a tournament in Atlanta.

“Yeah, it is definitely more fun,” Karlovic said of his return, “because every day and every match it feels like a bonus, because I was ill and I didn’t really know if I would ever be able to be back. But now I’m really happy and just having fun out there.”

— New York Times News Service