DELRAY BEACH: Croatia's Ivo Karlovic, never dropping a service game all week, defeated American Donald Young 6-3, 6-3 Sunday to win the Delray Beach Open, snapping a four-final losing streak.
Six days before his 36th birthday, Karlovic blasted 13 aces past the 25-year-old US left-hander to claim the top prize of $84,250 (73,900 euros) and his sixth career ATP crown.
Karlovic held all 55 of his service games this week, saving all 19 break points he faced -- including seven from Young -- to become the oldest Delray Beach champion since Jimmy Connors in 1989.
Karlovic, playing in his 13th career ATP final, took only 69 minutes to win just his second title in seven years and his first since the 2013 Colombia Open.
Fourth-seeded Karlovic, the ATP's tallest player at 2.11m, reached four finals last year but was beaten in the championship matches at Memphis, Dusseldorf, Newport and in trying to defend his Bogota title.
Karlovic, who lost the 2010 Delray final to Latvian Ernests Gulbis, fired 90 aces this week to break the tournament record he set five years ago.
Karlovic, ranked 29th, broke Young, ranked 56th, in the seventh and final games of the opening set to seize command of the match against a foe he had never before faced.
Young wasted three chances to break in the second game of the second set before squandering three break points in a row. Karlovic won his seventh game in a row for a 3-0 lead and held to the finish from there for the triumph.
Young's only prior ATP final came in 2011 at Bangkok, where he lost to Britain's Andy Murray.
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