SHANGHAI: John Isner reached the third round of the Shanghai Masters by beating Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7-6 (3), 6-7 (8), 7-6 (7) on Tuesday.
Neither player was able to break serve in the match, the first at the tournament to go to three tiebreakers. Isner saved three break points and Anderson saved four.
Isner finished the match with 24 aces and Anderson had 21.
”The quality was good as far as serving goes,” Isner said.
”But other than that I think we maybe both could have played better a little bit.
”I guess it was exciting from a fan standpoint. Anytime a match comes down to a third set tiebreaker, it’s going to be exciting.”
In the first round, 14th-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan defeated Di Wu of China 6-2, 6-4.
”Obviously, it’s not easy thing to play after winning the tournament,” said Nishikori, who won the Tokyo Open on Sunday. ”You want to rest. But I had a good day today.”
Also, 13th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Albert Ramos of Spain 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5), 15th-seeded Gilles Simon of France beat Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4, 6-2, and Florian Mayer of Germany defeated Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-4, 6-0.
Seventh-seeded Juan Monaco was upset by fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-2. The 23rd-ranked Verdasco broke his opponent three times and held serve throughout.
In other first-round matches, Chennai Open champion 12th-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada beat Marinko Matosevic of Australia 7-6 (4), 6-3.
And the Czech Radek Stepanek came through 7-5, 6-1 against Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.
Meanwhile, Zheng Jie of China advanced to the second round of the Japan Open with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win Tuesday over Maria Jose Martina Sanchez of Spain.
Zheng broke her opponent three times in the final set at the Utsubo Tennis Center and will face Pauline Parmentier in the second round.
In other matches, sixth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues dropped the first set but won 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 over Camila Giorgi.
Wild-card entry Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand upset fifth-seeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2.
Virginie Razzano booked a second-round meeting with top-seeded Sam Stosur after defeating Thailand qualifier Nudnida Luangnam 6-3, 6-3.
Laura Robson of Britain, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa and Mirjana Lucic of Croatia also advanced.
Indian challenge ends at Tashkent
The Indian challenge came to an end as Yuki Bhambri, Vishnu Vardhan and Sanam Singh fell in the first round of the Tashkent Challenger here on Tuesday.
Eighth seed Karol Beck of Slovakia scored a 6-1, 6-3 win over Yuki Bhambri while Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn ended the run of Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-4.
In a battle of qualifiers Oleksandr Nedovyesov played solid tennis to oust Sanam Singh 6-0, 6-4.
India’s lone pair in the doubles event of Bhambri and Divij Sharan also went down to the German pair of Andre Begemann and Martin Emmrich in the first round. The German pair won 6-4, 6-4. (Agencies)