American Steve Johnson yesterday struggled to defeat Liam Caruana 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) to reach the second round of the ASB Classic as the tournament’s main draw was decimated by withdrawals.
Caruana, who was making his debut in the main draw of an ATP tournament, was one of four lucky losers promoted into the first round to replace players forced to withdraw because of injuries or fatigue.
Johnson was due to meet compatriot Ryan Harrison, but Harrison withdrew after playing his way into the final of last week’s Brisbane International, losing to Nick Kyrgios.
Argentina’s Guido Pello withdrew with a shoulder injury, conceding his place in the main draw to Japan’s Taro Daniel, who along with Caruana, American Tennys Sandgren and Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko were losers in the last round of qualifying.
Daniel was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by sixth-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.
Slovakia’s 90th-ranked Lacko made the most of his luck, as he reached the second round by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-3, 6-7 (5/7) 6-3.
Eighth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia pulled out with an arm injury after reaching the final at Doha last week and Britain’s Kyle Edmund withdrew with a sprained ankle.
Johnson, who struggled with his ball toss and could not always bring his big serve to bear, took time to make his way into the match, but eventually gained a foothold.
The second set was also tight, and Carruana had set points in a pivotal 10th game on Johnson’s serve, which lasted seven-and-a-half minutes before the American was able to hold.
“Oh man, it’s tough when you play someone you really don’t know,” Johnson said. “He swings hard and he hit it well.”
The top four seeds — Jack Sock, Juan Martin del Potro, Sam Querrey and John Isner — all have first-round byes and do not appear until today.
ATP executive chairman Chris Kermode warned that rules on withdrawals were under review, but said he believed the players’ reasons for pulling out.
“The bigger concern would be players pulling out before they got here, that would be an issue,” Kermode told Fairfax Media in Auckland. “They make the effort to come to the event and that’s demonstrated the desire to play here.”
“Tennis is such a physical sport that these things are going to happen. We are currently doing a whole review process of our business and plans for 2019,” he said. “Ranking points, player withdrawals and how we deal with that is something we’ve got to and are looking at.”
“A lot of it is about wording. You can withdraw through personal reasons, fatigue and things like this,” Kermode said. “If there is a good, concrete, obvious reason, then I think fans realize that sport is live, dynamic and there are going to be withdrawals.”
“When there’s the gray area at the beginning of the year, fatigue doesn’t sound that great. At the end of the year people would say: ‘OK, it’s been a long season,’” he added. “So we’ve got to clear that up, that’s part of this whole process we’re doing.”
HOBART INTERNATIONAL
AP, HOBART, Australia
Defending champion Elise Mertens yesterday beat Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-4 to advance the Hobart International quarter-finals.
Mertens came from qualifying and No. 127 in the world in last year’s Hobart event to win the title. She is next to meet last year’s runner-up, Monica Niculescu, or American Varvara Lepchenko for a semi-final berth.
Mertens is the only seeded player left in her half of the draw and one of just three remaining in the tournament.
Sixth seed Irina-Camelia Begu and eighth seed Katerina Siniakova yesterday joined fourth seed Alize Cornet and third seed Sorana Cirstea as opening-round losers.
Niculescu defeated Begu 6-3, 6-2, while American Alison Riske beat Siniakova 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
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