Isner sweeps tiebreakers to defeat Taiwan’s Tseng
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.
“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.” Read More…
