Ivo Karlovic was not sure he could or should try to defend his title at the Delray Beach Open.
An old knee injury had flared up during the Australian Open last month, forcing the 36-year-old Croatian to retire from his first-round match and sidelining him from the practice courts ever since.
Although Karlovic gamely tried to serve his way past 27-year-old qualifier John-Patrick Smith of Australia, his rust was evident and the third seed was ousted 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the opening round on Monday.
The win was just the fourth main-draw victory of Smith’s career and his second-best win. A four-time All-American at the University of Tennessee, Smith upset world No. 25 Bernard Tomic en route to the semi-finals in Newport, Rhode Island, last year.
Playing with a fierce nighttime wind whipping through his shirt and his strokes, Karlovic served 21 aces, but also hit 11 double faults, including four in the crucial fourth game of the third set. He saved two match points, but Smith closed out the win with a precision passing shot.
Earlier in the day, fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov persevered through a four-hour rain delay and wind gusts greater than 50kph to defeat Israeli Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-2. Also advancing was eighth-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, a semi-finalist last year, who dispatched Tunisian Malek Jaziri 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.
So difficult were the conditions that Dimitrov and Sela continually found themselves catching errant ball tosses and chasing looping shots that started as forehands, but blew to the backhand side.
“It was rough, very hard to control the ball,” Dimitrov said. “Things were flying all over the court. You just have to prepare mentally and keep moving your feet.”
Dimitrov was playing in his first ATP Tour tournament since a third-round loss to Roger Federer at the Australian Open. Two of his three losses this year have come at the hands of Federer, the man to whom he is most often compared.
The seeming ease with which Dimitrov strokes the ball earned him the nickname “Baby Fed” when he first turned professional in 2008.
After beating Andy Murray to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2014, Dimitrov climbed to a career-high eighth in the world, but he faltered last year, split with his coach and his girlfriend, Maria Sharapova, and ended the year at No. 28.
“I’m happy with last year,” Dimitrov said. “I know people don’t expect me to say that, but I learned a lot. It was a wake-up call.”
OPEN 13
AP, MARSEILLE, France
Sixth seed David Goffin of Belgium breezed past South Korean Chung Hyeon 6-3, 6-1 to reach the second round of the Open 13 on Monday.
Eighth seed Benoit Paire also advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 defeat of Simone Bolelli.
Paire, one of the 10 Frenchmen competing in the singles draw in Marseille, converted four of 16 break points. He next plays either Nicolas Mahut, who reached the semi-finals in Rotterdam at the weekend, or qualifier Vincent Millot.
“I’m really happy to win this match and the way I behaved on court,” Paire said. “I hope that I will keep on winning to regain confidence in my game.”
Robin Haase needed just 63 minutes to dispatch Joao Sousa 6-4, 6-0. Up next for the Dutchman is fourth seed Marin Cilic.
In the first round of the doubles, Taiwanese duo Hsieh Cheng-peng and Yi Chu-huan fell to a 6-4, 7-5 loss to Marin Draganja of Croatia and Julian Knowle of Austria.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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