US Open champion Marin Cilic made a shock first-round exit from the Shanghai Masters on Monday after losing 5-7, 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), to fellow Croatian Ivo Karlovic.
After dropping the first set, Cilic broke his opponent twice in the second to force a decider but Karlovic clinched the tie-breaker to seal victory in 2 hours and 16 minutes.
Cilic, sixth in the race to November’s elite eight-player ATP World Tour Finals in London, had won his last two matches against Karlovic, who blasted 20 aces to his opponent’s nine.
It proved a good day for big-servers as world No 14 John Isner belted down 22 aces to beat Spaniard Pablo Andujar 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 6-3.
The American, who lost to Tomas Berdych in the China Open quarter-final last week, won 71 per cent of his service points to win in just over two hours.
“Beijing was great last week,” said Isner after his 38th win of the season. “I had a pretty good tournament. Got my tail kicked in the quarters. But I’m playing pretty well.
“I’m still alive here. I’m glad I’m not on a flight home tomorrow. It’s all good. Playing better away from the States is something I’m always trying to do and I feel like it’s something I’ve done so far.”
Bulgarian Wimbledon semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov, ranked 10th and very much in the hunt for a place in the London end-of-year showcase, cruised in his first round match as well.
The 23-year-old dusted off Uzbekistan’s world No 51 Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3 in just 1 hour 5 minutes.
If he can get past either Julien Benneteau or wild card Ze Zhang in the second round, he faces a likely headline clash with Japanese US Open finalist Kei Nishikori in the third round.
Nishikori, the seventh seed and given a bye, faces Jack Sock in the second round. American Sock, 22, beat Australian Bernard Tomic, 21, 7-6 (7/4), 6/7 (4/7), 6-4 on Monday.
Argentine Juan Monaco downed Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) to set up a second-round clash with eighth seed Milos Raonic.
Other winners included Malek Jaziri (d Donald Young), Yen-hsun Lu (d Marcel Granollers), Kevin Anderson (d James Ward) and Richard Gasquet (d Jeremy Chardy).
Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer are together this week in Shanghai for the first time since Wimbledon having already secured their places at the London season finale.
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