American John Isner rained down 16 aces in an opening victory at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna on Tuesday as the third seed kept up a long-odds bid for an ATP year-end finals spot.
One of the tallest men in tennis defeated an opponent he called “a left-handed version of me,” advancing to the second round over Frenchman Kenny de Schepper 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5).
Isner did not face a break point in the victory lasting almost 1 hour, 45 minutes at the Stadthalle in Vienna.
Photo: EPA
Isner had a match point in the penultimate game, which he missed, before serving out the victory 7/5 in a tight deciding tie-breaker.
He next faces Ernests Gulbis after the patchy Latvian ended an ATP-level five-match losing streak, stretching back to August last year, with his opening victory on Monday.
“I am very happy with this performance,” said Isner, who stands a provisional 12th among five other rivals battling for the last two places in the eight-man field for next month’s World Tour Finals in London.
Photo: EPA
“My goal is to try and make London, but [Vienna top seed David] Ferrer is so many points ahead [in provisional eighth]. It is not a problem if I do not make it — at least I will have tried my best. I will just go into the off-season, rest and prepare for 2016,” he added.
Isner said that advancing past 123rd-ranked De Schepper was not easy.
“It came down to a few points, which I was able to win. I like the conditions here. The court and the balls are fantastic,” said Isner, who lost in the 2009 first round on his only other appearance in Vienna.
Sixth seed Gael Monfils said that he would feel the post-match pain in his body after working hard to defeat Brazil’s Thomas Bellucci 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4.
The Frenchman was playing his first match since retiring in the US Open first round on Aug. 31 with a lower back injury.
It took Monfils 2 hours, 30 minutes to prevail after losing a break in the opening set and being stretched all the way in a three-setter.
“I am happy to come back with a win. It has been a long time since I was on a court,” Monfils said. “I was not able to do anything for six weeks.”
“I have had just five or six days of practice, so I am sure I will be quite sore tomorrow. I knew coming into the match that I had to play well. I do not think it went too badly. I lost a bit of rhythm in the first set and that turned it into a long match. We will see how I pull up for the next match,” he added.
Ferrer overcame a slow start to defeat fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.
Wolrd No. 8 Ferrer produced an unusual string of mistakes and scored just two points on Ramos-Vinolas’ serve in the first set.
Ferrer, who won all four previous matches against his 58th-ranked countryman, turned around the match after saving four break points at 3-2 down in the second set and winning five straight games. He broke Ramos-Vinolas again at 5-4 in the final set.
Ferrer next plays Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, who beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-4, 6-3.
Another seeded player, Dominic Thiem, lost in the opening round. Jerzy Janowicz of Poland came back from a disappointing first set to defeat the fifth-seeded Austrian 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
Unseeded Italian Paolo Lorenzi of Italy spent 2 hours, 15 minutes getting past Rajeev Ram 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-4, firing 16 aces along the way. Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-4.
American Steve Johnson beat Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
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