Giant Wimbledon star accused officials of cheating in 'outrageous' rant

Ivo Karlovic once held the record for fastest Wimbledon serve at 156mph, but this time the officials were on the receiving end of his fury. He faced Andy Murray on Centre Court in 2012 and lost 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2, 7-6(4). The 6ft 11in giant's service game was neutralised thanks to the Brit's impressive defence and, according to the Croatian, several unjust umpire calls.

Former world No. 14 Karlovic, who had reached the quarter-finals at SW19 three years earlier, was astonishingly pulled up for foot faults on 11 separate occasions. He was dumbfounded by the infringements and launched a blistering attack on the officials after the match.

When asked what the difference between himself and Murray was on the day, Karlovic replied: "Foot-faults. I don't know what to say, but it was a little bit outrageous. In my whole life, ever since I was eight years old, (my) whole life I didn't do this many foot-faults. It was like 11.

"It was never called when it was like 30-love or 40-love. It was always when it was 30-all or in a tiebreak. I mean, what is this? Is it Davis Cup or is it Wimbledon?

"After this match, the whole credibility of this tournament went down for me...

"After I don't know how many, I stood a little bit back so they cannot call (foot-fault). They still did it. So it was outrageous, outrageous. It's Wimbledon, Centre Court, and they do this."

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Karlovic had a game suited for grass and he stunned defending champion Lleyton Hewitt en route to the quarter-finals in 2009.

He felt that he would have won if not for the foot faults: "You do the calculation. If these ten points, I win? Who would have win? You do the math. I feel cheated. On a Grand Slam (stage), Centre Court, I don't know what to say."

Karlovic was then asked directly if he felt the officials were biased, to which he replied: "Definitely."

Murray stood by the SW19 team, insisting: "That's very tough to question the integrity of Wimbledon. It's got a lot of history, a lot of tradition. There's been hundreds of thousands of matches played here over the years. I've never heard that before.

"But I need to see the videos. If there was 11 foot faults called against him and every one was incorrect, then that's completely wrong and unfair.

"But for it to happen that many times, you would think there would have been a number of fairly obvious foot faults, because you don't really see them called that much nowadays."

An All England Club spokesman responded to the accusations by saying: "If he wishes to make a formal complaint then all evidence will be reviewed."