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| June 26, 2003 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 25,1424 |
Croatian sensation sleeping easy
LONDON,June 25: Towering Croatian giant-killer Ivo Karlovic finally has room to stretch his legs thanks to his first-round Wimbledon Championships upset of Lleyton Hewitt.
The 2.09-metre man-mountain is using some of his prize money to change accommodation, switching from a London bed-and-breakfast which he shared with his coach into a more comfortable hotel.
The 24-year-old swapped a 21-pound (35-dollar) room in Earl Court for a four-star hotel with a price tag of around 250 dollars per night.
Karlovic’s win helped him in the battle of the budget even after losing more than his 1,800 sterling (2970 dollars) prize money from a tuneup event the week before due to fines totalling 165 dollars more for on-court tantrums.
He is currently resting his long legs and size 15 feet in his comfortable surrounds, assured that paying the bill won’t be a problem after winning 14,000 sterling (23,100 dollars) for getting through the opening round.
For a Grand Slam played in a city, Wimbledon finds itself taking extraordinary measure to keep wildlife at bay.
The latest defences of the All England Club against the marauding animal kingdom are two electric fences to fend off foxes who seem to prefer the soft grass courts to the harsh cement outside the grounds.
Officials paid around 8,300 dollars to have the barriers installed. They are designed to keep the foxes from soiling Centre Court and scraping away the precious turf.
“You could tell just from the smell that a lot of foxes had been there,” said an expert, who said that no stakes were allowed to be planted in the surface of the grass.
The metre-high fences are only designed to shock the
curious foxes, not kill them.— dpa
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