Del Potro Downs Isner In Stockholm

Power tennis was on display at the If Stockholm Open on Wednesday, as Juan Martin del Potro downed No. 7 seed John Isner 6-4, 7-6(6) in first-round action. The Argentine wild card scored his first win in three trips to Stockholm.

“I’ve been here twice in the past and did not win a match. Hopefully this is a good sign for me to go far this week,” del Potro said. “I’m very happy to have a chance to come back here and to be able to show my best tennis.

“Isner has a difficult game to play against. In the second set, I was lucky in the tie-break to take the chance to win the match.”

Isner came into the match with an ATP World Tour-leading 982 aces and added 15 to his tally against del Potro, but the 6’10” American dropped serve to lose the first set and succumbed in 89 minutes. Del Potro fired nine aces and did not face a break point in improving his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Isner to 5-2. He will next face Nicolas Almagro.

Big-serving Ivo Karlovic defeated Swedish teen Mikael Ymer 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round. The No. 3 seed was in danger of being upset by the 18 year old, currently No. 549 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, but saved all three break points faced after dropping the opening set. The Croatian struck 16 aces and won 90 per cent of first-serve points to advance in under two hours.

#NextGen star Alexander Zverev beat Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-4. The 19 year old, who recently cracked the Top 20 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, hit seven aces and broke serve three times against the French left-hander.

Sixth seed and last year’s finalist Jack Sock notched his 30th match win of 2016 to edge Malek Jaziri 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) for a place in the second round against Dustin Brown.

Jurgen Zopp, who qualified for his first ATP World Tour tournament of the year, recorded his first tour-level match win since 2012 when he knocked out Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles Seeds Advance

Rohan Bopanna and Treat Huey, seeded second, downed Marcos Baghdatis and Gilles Muller 7-6(6), 6-3 in their opening match, while No. 4 seeds Mate Pavic and Michael Venus beat Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski 7-6(5), 6-4. Both teams will face all-Swedish duos in the quarterfinals. Bopanna/Huey will take on Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom, while Pavic/Venus will play wild cards Isak Arvidsson and Fred Simonsson.