Fifth-seeded John Isner fired 22 aces without a double fault and emerged with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1) win over Taiwan's Chun-Hsin Tseng in the first round of the Dallas Open on Tuesday.
Isner saved the lone break point he faced, but he also came up empty on his five break-point opportunities. The first-set tiebreaker was briefly prolonged when Tseng staved off two set points, but Isner powered through the second-set tiebreaker, dropping only the second point.
Two other seeded U.S. players advanced, both scoring victories over American qualifiers. Sixth-seeded J.J. Wolf got past Brandon Holt 6-3, 6-3, and seventh-seeded Marcos Giron defeated Alex Rybakov 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-1.
Eighth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France beat the United States' Steve Johnson 7-6 (6), 6-2. Also winning first-round matches were Moldova's Radu Albot, China's Yibing Wu, Australia's Jordan Thompson and the United States' Mackenzie McDonald.
Cordoba Open
Argentina's Federico Delbonis saved three match points in the third set and emerged with a 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (6) win over Chile's Alejandro Tabilo in the first round at Cordoba, Argentina.
Tabilo, who finished with a 13-4 edge in aces, saved four set points in the first-set tiebreaker to move in front. He lost the second set decisively before he had a chance to serve for the match at 5-4 in the third. Delbonis rallied on two match points in that game and saved another in the tiebreaker before closing out the victory.
Chile's Cristian Garin upset seventh-seeded Pedro Martinez of Spain 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-0, and sixth-seeded Federico Coria of Argentina rallied past Brazil's Thiago Monteiro 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2. Argentina's Guido Pella and Chile's Tomas Barrios Vera also advanced.
Open Sud de France
The United States' Maxime Cressy needed just 71 minutes to beat Swiss qualifier Antoine Bellier 6-3, 6-2 in the first round at Montpellier, France.
Cressy never lost his serve while taking advantage of three of his seven break-point chances. He fired 11 aces to Bellier's six.
Italy's Lorenzo Sonego eliminated eighth-seeded Benjamin Bonzi of France 6-3, 6-4. Other first-round winners were France's Arthur Rinderknech and Quentin Halys, Hungary's Marton Fucsovics, Switzerland's Marc-Andrea Huesler and Serbia's Filip Krajinovic.
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