Former Top-15 player Ivo Karlovic of Croatia discusses his spring battle with viral meningitis. Karlovic was rushed to a Miami hospital in April after experiencing numbness in his arm. Originally it was thought that he suffered a stroke.
“It is unbelievable. I didn’t really know that I would be back,” Karlovic said after his 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Vasek Pospisil in Newport. “Now it’s a really good feeling out there because I feel no stress. I feel like I’m not supposed to be here. It is like a bonus. I feel good.”
Karlovic said that it took him five days to recover from the numbness and 10 days to overcome the headaches. He didn’t play tennis for a month.
“Doctors didn’t know if I would recover 100 percent,” he said. “Virus in my head, and it was long, it was really long when I was out of conscious. I didn’t know my name. I didn’t know which year it was. It was a lot of pain. My right arm was numb, face, headaches, whatever. If I was like that a little but longer, I could have had more consequences.”