WASHINGTON -- Even Ivo Karlovic willingly admits that whatever success he has on a tennis court is due mainly to his big serve.Well, that one stroke is in fine form at the moment, and so is Karlovic, closing in on a second consecutive title at age 37.Karlovic saved all five break points he faced Saturday and ran his service-game record to 43 for 43 this week, beating fifth-seeded American Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-4 to reach the Citi Open final.This is my game. This is my strength, said the 6-foot-11 Karlovic, a Croatian seeded 13th at the hard-court tournament.He broke Johnson in the third game of each set, right after saving break points on his own serve.Its definitely frustrating when you have chances, you dont take `em, and you lose your focus for a second and you lose serve, said Johnson, a 26-year-old from California who eliminated top-seeded John Isner in the quarterfinals. And thats the margin when you play a guy (like) Ivo, (who) pretty much only has a serve.Karlovic will face No. 2-seeded Gael Monfils on Sunday. Monfils, the 2011 runner-up at Washington, advanced by breaking No. 7 Alexander Zverev four times in a 6-4, 6-0 victory that lasted only an hour.Zverev said afterward he had been throwing up and was dehydrated, attributing the problem to something he ate and adding: Its not like I didnt try.Monfils reached the 25th final of his career, but hes only won five in the past. He is 2-2 against Karlovic, but they havent faced each other in five years.Ivo is the same, said Monfils, who has accumulated 15 breaks of serve this week. You know what to expect.In the womens semifinals, No. 7 Yanina Wickmayer beat No. 6 Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 6-2, and 122nd-ranked Lauren Davis defeated 173rd-ranked Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-3 in a matchup of 22-year-old Americans. Wickmayer, who teamed with Monica Niculescu to win the doubles title Saturday, will be appearing in her 11th WTA singles final, while Davis -- who was born in Ohio and is based in Florida -- will be in her first.Last week, at the grass-court tournament in Newport, Rhode Island, Karlovic became the oldest man since 1979 to win an ATP singles title. Now he is into another final, the 16th of his career. He is 7-8 so far.In my old age, Karlovic joked, it is good when you can reach your goals.Since losing his first six matches of 2016, Karlovic has gone 16-7.His game is based on his serve, which comes at opponents from way up high and gets quite a bounce on Washingtons hard courts, especially in the July heat. The temperature approached 100 degrees Saturday, prompting Karlovic to say afterward: There was this moment where I wanted to lay down.In the 25 years that ATP service stats cover, Karlovic leads the tour with more than 11,000 aces and by winning 92 percent of his service games. He hit 14 aces Saturday, including at 134 mph and 132 mph on the last two points.Johnson serves well, too, and he came into the semifinal having held in all 32 of his service games, saving 7 of 7 break points.Those streaks did not last long.In Johnsons second service game, less than 15 minutes in, he missed a shot at deuce to hand over a break point and angrily smacked a ball. Then, with both men at the net, Karlovic lunged for a backhand volley winner to go up 2-1.In the second set, Karlovic broke by delivering back-to-back return winners.After the match, Johnson took to Twitter to respond to some of the meaner messages he received. Among Johnsons choice phrases: Learn English so we know what you are trying to say and you are an idiot.Asked at his news conference about the exchanges, Johnson said he doesnt take it seriously, whatsoever and considers those sending pointed messages his way useless human beings.---Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrichNike Huaraches Sale . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. Nike Air Huarache Mens . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. http://www.huarachesnikeshoes.com/ . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Nike Huarache Sale Cheap . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. Nike Air Huarache Sale . Vettel, who has already clinched his fourth straight F1 title, enters the finale with a chance to equal Michael Schumachers 13 victories in a year and match the record of nine consecutive wins by Alberto Ascari in the 1952 and 1953 seasons. WIGGINS, Miss. -- The president of the Mississippi NAACP is demanding a federal hate crime investigation after the parents of a black high school student said as many as four white students put a noose around their sons neck at school.No child should be walking down the hall or in a locker room and be accosted with a noose around their neck, president Derrick Johnson said Monday during a news conference in Wiggins. This is 2016, not 1916. This is America. This is a place where children should go to school and feel safe in their environment.Johnson said the incident happened Oct. 13 near a locker room at Stone High School in Wiggins.Hollis and Stacey Payton, parents of the alleged victim, attended the news conference but did not speak. Their son, a sophomore football player, was not with them and they did not release his name.The NAACP said the incident happened during a break in football practice and that the noose was yanked backward while on the students neck.Johnson would not say whether noose left any marks on the black student. According to a statement from the students family, he returned to football practice after the incident, said Ayana Kinnel, a spokeswoman for the state NAACP.Stone High has about 800 students, about a quarter of whom are black according to state figures. Thats not a particularly high percentage in Mississippi, where half of nearly 500,000 public school students are African-American.Wiggins, 35 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, is a logging town. Many people commute from the 18,000-resident county to jobs in Gulfport and other coastal cities.Mississippi has struggled with a history of racial division. It is the last state that still incorporates the Confederate battle emblem on its state flag. In 2014, two out-of-state students at the University of Mississippi placed a noose on the campus statue of James Meredith, the black student who integrated Ole Miss in 1962. Both pleaded guilty to using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students and employees. Neither attends the school anymore.Names and ages of the other students allegedly involved in the Stone High School incident werent immediately released.The Stone County Sheriffs Department provides officers at local schools and typically is the first to respond to incidents. Sheriffs Capt. Ray Boggs said officials believe something close to what the Paytons described diid happen and said hes still investigating.dddddddddddd He said all the students involved are younger than 17 and he expects any charges would be filed in youth court, where records are closed to the public.Its probably one of the hardest cases Ill ever handle in my career, because of the nature of it, said Boggs, who is black. Have I ever had to deal with something like this? No, not from a high school.Johnson said he wants the teenagers charged as adults. Thats allowable in certain situations for people between ages 13 and 16 in Mississippi. He cited federal prosecutions of young people from Rankin County for hate crimes following the 2011 death of a man run down in the parking lot of Jackson motel as an example of what federal involvement could bring. Most of those people were charged as adults, although there was evidence of at least one unusual federal juvenile prosecution.There is absolutely a role for federal law enforcement, Johnson said.Johnson said Stacey Payton was advised against filing a police report because the father of one of the alleged assailants is a former law enforcement officer. Boggs said he talked to Stacey Payton and thats not true. He said he told her that pursuing criminal charges could result in hard feelings among students that could make her sons life harder at school.Stone High School Principal Adam Stone referred comment to Superintendent Inita Owen. She and school board attorney Sean Courtney didnt respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment. Johnson said the Paytons have received no official word about punishments from school officials. Johnson said school district policy calls for immediate expulsion of students who commit assault.Carissa Bolden of Wiggins, the mother of a middle school student, attended the NAACP news conference Monday and said white students have been flying the Mississippi flag from their vehicles. The upper left corner of the state flag used since 1894 has the Confederate battle emblem -- a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. Bolden said she sees a connection between the flag and the noose incident.I feel like it escalated from them allowing kids to bring Confederate flags to school, Bolden said.----Emily Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. China NFL JerseysCheap Nike NFL JerseysNFL Jerseys CheapWholesale NFL JerseysCheap Basketball Jerseys OnlineStitched Hockey JerseysWholesale Baseball JerseysFootball Jerseys OutletCollege Jerseys For SaleCheap MLB JerseysWholesale Soccer JerseysWholesale Jerseys For SaleWholesale NFL Jerseys ' ' '