Fourth seed Milos Raonic hit 12 aces and saved all five break points he faced as he beat Steve Johnson of the US 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors on Tuesday.
Johnson, who did not face a break point in the first set, saved one on his opening service game in the second, where he also missed four chances to break Raonic’s serve.
The 1.95m Canadian sealed victory by breaking Johnson’s serve for the first time in the 10th game. He next faces Donald Young of the US.
Photo: EPA
Mikhail Kukushkin upset third seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-4, 6-7 (1/7), 6-3 later on Tuesday.
The 84th-ranked Kazakh converted four of his 10 break-point chances to set up a second-round match with Germany’s Benjamin Becker, who needed just over an hour to breeze past qualifier Gastao Elias of Portugal 6-3, 6-2.
Meanwhile, eighth seed Ivo Karlovic had 23 aces as he advanced to the second round with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 win against Lukas Rosol.
The 35-year-old Karlovic won 95 percent of his first-serve points and next plays Frenchman Kenny de Schepper, who beat Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.
Croatia’s Ivan Dodig needed nearly three hours to get the better of Swiss wild-card Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 and next plays seventh seed David Goffin of Belgium.
Canada’s Vasek Pospisil needed just under two hours to defeat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 in the late match. The 24-year-old Pospisil next faces fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov or German wild-card Alexander Zverev.
Top seed Roger Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who struggled with appendicitis earlier this month in Shanghai, were in second-round action yesterday.
Federer, a recent winner in Shanghai, was due to face Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller and Nadal was taking on unheralded Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, a qualifier ranked 120th.
VALENCIA OPEN
AFP, VALENCIA, Spain
Fifth seed John Isner crashed out of the Valencia Open in the first round to Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 on Tuesday.
The American, who has only won two matches in four visits to Valencia, lost the opening set in a tiebreak after neither man could make an impact on the other’s serve.
World No. 21 Robredo got the all-important break in the penultimate game of the match, before serving it out for a first win over Isner in four attempts.
Robredo was due to face Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun in the second round yesterday.
Fourth seed Feliciano Lopez had an easier afternoon as he eased past Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos 6-4, 6-4 in little over an hour to set up a round-of-16 meeting with fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.
Big-serving Kevin Anderson of South Africa was also a winner in straight sets as he downed Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4.
Anderson is a potential quarter-final opponent for Andy Murray, who was due to continue his quest to reach the ATP World Tour Finals against Jurgen Melzer yesterday, and will face Slovakia’s Martin Klizan in the second round.
Gilles Simon was another seed to fall as the Frenchman was swept aside by Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-0, 6-3, while Italy’s Fabio Fognini enjoyed an unusually drama-free day as he cruised past Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-2.
The top two seeds, David Ferrer and Thomas Berdych, were due to get their campaigns underway yesterday against Andreas Seppi and Pablo Andujar respectively.
Taiwan last night defeated Cuba 2-0 in their World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 Group B game at the Taipei Dome and finished the group second. At the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, South Korea yesterday defeated Australia 5-2, while Japan last night won 11-3 against the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome to advance to the Super Round. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champions and Group B winners Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the
OFFENSE SHINES: First baseman Pan Chie-kai hit a solo homer in the fifth inning as all 10 batters Taiwan used contributed at least one hit toward their team total of 14 One day after their first shutout loss at the WBSC Premier12, Taiwan yesterday bounced back with a commanding 8-2 victory over the US, keeping their hopes for a spot in tomorrow’s final alive. The win in the Super Round marked Taiwan’s first triumph over the US at a top-tier international baseball tournament since 2003. Their previous win over the US was at the 2003 Baseball World Cup, with only one win in the previous 10 matchups since 1999. Yesterday’s game was tightly contested through the first six innings, with the margin never exceeding two runs. However, the tide turned in the top of
Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome last night to advance to the Super Round of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 tournament. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champion and Group B winner Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the off. After taking a walk to first base, Taiwan’s Chen Chieh- hsien (陳傑憲) then stole second before Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) drew a walk to first in the top of the first inning. Chen then
TWO-NIL LOSS: Taiwan’s best chance to score came at the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Venezuela’s Liarvis Breto got out of the jam Taiwan yesterday suffered a shutout 2-0 loss to Venezuela in the opening game of the WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome. Taiwan had seven hits, one more than Venezuela’s six, but catcher Carlos Perez’s two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning delivered the only runs scored by both teams and secured victory for Venezuela. Taiwan’s best chance came at the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and only one out. However, Venezuela reliever Liarvis Breto struck out Chen Chen-wei before reliever Pedro Garcia finished the inning by allowing an infield flyball by Lin
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