Ivo Karlovic fired a record 45 aces in upsetting the third-seeded Tomas Berdych 7-5 6-7 (8-10) 6-3 to advance to the semi-finals of the Halle grasscourt event on Friday.
Karlovic eclipsed the previous ATP record of 44 in a best-of-three-sets match, which he shared with Mark Philippoussis.
"I always like when I'm best at something, so if it's aces I'm happy about it," said Karlovic, who equalled Philippoussis's record from Kuala Lumpur in 1995 by firing 44 at Zagreb in February last year.
Karlovic made the first break at 5-5 following a Berdych double fault.
The eighth-seeded Croat fought back to level in the second-set tiebreaker after Berdych missed three set points, but he missed a match point, and hit a return into the net for the Czech to take the set.
Karlovic went 3-1 up in the third, held his serve, and finished the match in 2 hours, 12 minutes with yet another ace to set the record.
"I just knew there was a lot of aces, but I didn't know it was that many," Karlovic said. "The record will always be there, it will always be written. I'm extremely happy."
The 27th-ranked Karlovic will next play either Roger Federer or Germany's Florian Mayer.
"He's the best on grass so it will be really difficult, but if I serve like today I will have a chance," Karlovic said of a possible meeting with the top-seeded Federer.
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