Isner Advacnes to Third Round of Shanghai Masters
Eighth-seeded John Isner saved three match points against Kevin Anderson at the 2012 Shanghai Rolex Masters to defeat the South African 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 7-6(7) in just under three hours to advance to the third round. Isner, who is ranked 14th in the South African Airways ATP Rankings Race To London, struck 24 aces and won 79 percent of his service points, to improve to a 44-18 match record on the season.
”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.”
Tenth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia also advanced to the third round in Shanghai, defeating Slovakian Martin Klizan 7-5, 6-1 in just over 90 minutes. It was a repeat of their U.S. Open fourth-round meeting, which Cilic also won in straight sets.
In first-round action, Milos Raonic of Canada hit 14 aces to beat Australian qualifier Marinko Matosevic 7-6(4), 6-3 in 89 minutes. Raonic will face Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who defeated Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-2 in 73 minutes. France’s Gilles Simon defeated Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4, 6-2 in 82 minutes.
Thirteenth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Albert Ramos of Spain 7-6(1), 7-6(5); and Florian Mayer of Germany defeated Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-4, 6-0.
The upset of the day saw seventh-seeded Juan Monaco upset by fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-2. Verdasco improved to 4-6 lifetime against seventh seed Monaco in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series with victory in 85 minutes. He won 39 of his 55 service points and converted three of his seven break point opportunities.
