Second-seeded Ivo Karlovic and hard-serving Australian Sam Groth both won their opening matches at the ATP Tour’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Monday.
Croatia’s Karlovic hammered 17 aces in defeating US wild card Robby Ginepri 7-6 (7/2), 6-2, while Groth fired 11 aces in a 7-6 (9/7), 6-2 straight-sets win over fifth seed Donald Young in the grass-court tournament in Newport, Rhode Island.
Karlovic and Groth rely heavily on their serves to get the job done. The 2.08m-tall Karlovic held the record for the fastest serve in pro tennis at 251kph before Groth beat him in 2012 with a 263kph blast.
Groth, who comes from Narrandera, New South Wales, moves on to the second round, where he will face Malek Jaziri, who beat Ricardas Berankis 7-5, 6-3 on Monday.
Karlovic will play the winner of a match between Farrukh Dustov and Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Also, Steve Johnson breezed past fellow American Clay Thompson 6-1, 6-2 and former champion Rajeev Ram moved on with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Aussie Matthew Ebden. Ram was a surprise winner in 2009.
Israeli Dudi Sela defeated Pole Michal Przysiezny 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) and Japan’s Tatsuma Ito beat US wild card Mitchell Krueger 7-6 (9/7), 6-1.
The top seed is two-time champion John Isner of the US who was to open his tournament against qualifier Wayne Odesnik yesterday.
Two-time finalist Nicolas Mahut of France overcame former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in last year’s Newport finale and they were to meet again yesterday, when Taiwan’s Jimmy Wang was to face off against Adrian Mannarino of France in his opening match.
MERCEDES CUP
AP, STUTTGART, Germany
Andrey Golubev on Monday defeated German wild card Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 6-1 to set up a second-round clash with defending champion Fabio Fognini in the Mercedes Cup.
The 61st-ranked Kazakh player hit six aces to win the match in 80 minutes, while Fognini, the top-seeded Italian, received a first-round bye at the clay-court event.
In other matches, eighth-seeded Federico Delbonis of Argentina defeated compatriot Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-1, while another Argentine, Leonardo Mayer, rallied from a set down to defeat German wild card Michael Berrer 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Mayer will next play second-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who also received a first-round bye.
SWEDISH OPEN
AP. BASTAD, Sweden
Pere Riba retired after only one game at the Swedish Open on Monday, allowing fifth-seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal to advance to the second round of the clay-court tournament.
The Spaniard won the game before retiring with a neck strain at Bastad Tennis Stadium in Sweden.
Also on Monday, Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi beat Swedish wild card Markus Eriksson 6-2, 6-1 and Dusan Lajovic of Serbia ousted Albert Montanes of Spain 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4).
David Ferrer is the top-seeded player. He has a first-round bye.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set