Karlovic Opens Newport Title Defence
Karlovic Opens Newport Title Defence
Croatian has been in the final the past three years
Second seed Ivo Karlovic got his title defence off to a strong start on Wednesday at the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open as he defeated Denis Kudla 6-4, 6-4 in the second round in Newport.
The Croatian was playing his first match in almost two weeks, since a first-round loss to Aljaz Bedene at Wimbledon, and is looking for a return to winning ways at this ATP World Tour 250 grass-court tournament, where he has made the final the past three years.
After finishing runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt and Rajeev Ram in third-set tie-breaks in 2014-15, Karlovic made it third time lucky last year as he edged Gilles Muller in a decisive third-set tie-break in the final.
The 38-year-old Karlovic notched his 15th win in Newport as he fired 16 aces and broke Kudla three times. He levelled their FedEx ATP Head2Head series at 2-2 as he set a quarter-final clash with German Peter Gojowczyk, who came back to defeat Konstantin Kravchuk 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Another German, Tobias Kamke, secured his place in the quarter-finals by ousting third-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6(5), 7-5. Kamke reached the Newport semi-finals on his one previous tournament appearance in 2011.
Top seed and home favourite John Isner cruised through his opening match at the grass-court tournament, kicking off his bid to reclaim the Newport title with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Australian qualifier Sam Groth in 61 minutes. Isner fired 13 aces and dropped a total of nine points on serve as he improved to a 3-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Groth.
Isner won back-to-back Newport titles in 2012 (d. O. Rochus) and ’13 (d. Hewitt). He awaits the winner between American Dennis Novikov and Canadian Frank Dancevic in the quarter-finals.
Fourth seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert saved 11 of 15 break points faced on serve while converting all four of his opportunities in a hard-fought 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 win over Spain’s Adrian Menendez-Maceiras. The Frenchman is making his Newport debut this week.
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