The US’ John Isner won a pair of tiebreakers in a match without any service breaks, advancing to the second round of his hometown Dallas Open with a straight-sets victory over Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin on Tuesday night.
Fifth-seeded Isner served 22 aces in a 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/1) victory that left him with a 498-319 career record in tiebreakers. Twenty-one-year-old Tseng was playing just his 10th and 11th tiebreakers, falling to 3-8.
Tseng stayed on serve with Isner, the tour’s career leader in aces, before finally faltering in the second-set tiebreaker. The match was all but over when Isner won consecutive points on Tseng’s serve for a 4-1 lead. The 37-year-old won the final six points of the tiebreaker.
Photo: AFP
“I was a little bit worn out after that first set emotionally,” Isner said. “But I was able to stay even in the second set, and I played a really, really good tiebreaker, and I’m very happy I’m not still on this court.”
Marcos Giron, the No. 7 seed who reached the semi-finals of the inaugural event last year along with Isner, advanced with a 6-4, 6-7 (7/1), 6-1 victory over Alex Rybakov earlier on Tuesday.
Giron responded quickly after failing to close out the second set, winning the first five games of the deciding set.
Rybakov broke his fellow American when Giron was serving for the match in the second set. Rybakov then won the first six points of the second-set tiebreaker.
“I’m really happy with how I was able to reset in the third and just get back to the game plan from the beginning and elevate,” Giron said. “He played well and served well and kind of hung in there.”
Eighth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France won the final five points of a first-set tiebreaker and the last four games of the second set to beat the US’ Steve Johnson 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.
The US’ J.J. Wolf, the No. 6 seed, had little trouble in a 6-3, 6-3 victory over compatriot Brandon Holt.
‘EVERYONE SAW’: The visitors were left fuming after Jules Kounde was fouled by Claudio Echeverri in the buildup to the winning goal and it went unpunished Spanish champions Barcelona on Monday fell to a damaging 2-1 defeat at Girona to leave them trailing Real Madrid by two points at the top of La Liga. Los Blancos beat Real Sociedad on Saturday to overtake the Catalans and Hansi Flick’s side could not defeat Girona in an gripping derby clash to reclaim the lead. Teenage star Lamine Yamal missed a penalty for Barcelona, who took the lead through defender Pau Cubarsi just before the hour mark. However, goals from Thomas Lemar and Fran Beltran helped Girona, 12th, mount an impressive comeback. “In the end Girona deserved it, they had a lot of
A dominant Cade Cunningham on Thursday scored 42 points as the NBA-leading Detroit Pistons swatted aside the New York Knicks 126-111 on the NBA’s return from its brief All-Star Game break. Billed as a must-watch clash between two Eastern Conference rivals each in red-hot form, the game at Madison Square Garden became an exhibition for Cunningham, who also provided 13 assists and eight rebounds. The 24-year-old burnished his credentials as a Most Valuable Player contender, helping a young, surprise-package Pistons side to improve the best record in the entire NBA this season so far, to 41-13. After the game, Cunningham said that he
Amanda Anisimova on Monday was handed a walkover into the last 16 of the Dubai Open after her opponent Barbora Krejcikova was forced to withdraw from the WTA 1000 event. The American second seed enters the round-of-16 against Janice Tjen without swinging a racket as two-time Grand Slam winner Krejcikova pulled out due to an issue with her left thigh. They became the seventh and eighth players to pull out, a list that includes the world top two Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. Tjen booked her meeting with Anisimova thanks to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win in her round-of-32 match against 2021 US
MEN’s FREESKI BIG AIR: Norway’s Tormod Frostad found an extra gear under the most intense pressure to post a winning total of 195.50 to top the podium Japanese teenager Ami Nakai on Tuesday set the pace in the Olympic women’s figure skating competition as freestyle skier Tormod Frostad soared to gold in an all-time classic big air final. Nikai, 17, upstaged teammate Kaori Sakamoto at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, while Alysa Liu of the US rounded out a powerful top three after the short program. Sakamoto is searching for an elusive gold at her final Winter Games, but faces a stiff challenge from a new generation of Japanese stars including Nakai and Mone Chiba. The 25-year-old Sakamoto, a relative veteran in the sport, won both of her segments in
RSS