Ivo Karlovic has become the first player in history to claim an ATP Tour match win at the age of 40 with his 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3) victory over Matthew Ebden after 1 hour and 49 minutes.
The Croatian giant, who was playing his first match since turning 40 on 28th February, became the first player aged 40 to win an ATP match since Jimmy Connors in Halle in 1995. Earlier this year he also became the oldest finalist on the ATP Tour since 1977 when he reached the title match in Pune.
Karlovic saved three break points in the first set before closing out the tie-break with an ace at 6-3. In the second set Karlovic rallied from an early break down by breaking back in the 10th game when Ebden made a double fault as he was serving to serve a third set.
Karlovic set up a second round match against his countryman Borna Coric. Karlovic won their previous two head-to-head matches in Bucharest 2015 and Wimbledon 2016.
Leonardo Mayer battled past US giant Reilly Opelka 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-2) after 1 hour and 48 minutes to score his 24th Masters 1000 win.
Mayer fended off two break points at 4-4 in the first set. In the tie-break the player from Argentina saved three set points in the tie-break, before closing out the first set 8-6, when Opelka made a forehand error on the 14th point. The second set was marked by 11 holds of serve. Opelka earned two set points at 5-4, but he did not convert them. Mayer sealed the tie-break 7-2 with a volley winner.
Jordan Thompson from Australia converted his fifth match point to battle past Federico Delbonis 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-5) in a marathon match after 3 hours and 23 minutes.
Thompson served for the match when he was leading 6-4 5-3 and held two match points in the tie-break of the second set before Delbonis reeled off four consecutive points to set up a third set. Thompson went up a break twice to take a 3-1 lead but Delbonis broke back to draw level to 3-3. Thompson edged Delbonis in a tight tie-break 7-5 to set up a second round match against Dominic Thiem.
Sam Querrey edged Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (7-5) 2-6 6-4. Berrettini went up a double break to open up a 3-0 40-0 lead earning three game points for 4-0 but Querrey pulled both breaks back to draw level to 3-3. The first set came down to the tie-break where Querrey edged Berrettini 7-5. Berrettini broke twice in the second and eighth games to seal the second set 6-2 forcing the match to the third set. Querrey got an early break at 30 in the first game of the decider. Berrettini saved two break points to hold his service game after three deuces in the third game. Querrey held his four service games to close out the third set 6-4.
Qualifier Marcos Giron stunned Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-1) in his first match at Masters 1000 level. Martin Klizan cruised past Misha Zverev 6-1 6-4 setting up a second round match against Misha’s younger brother Alexander Zverev.
