John Isner won his opening match at the Dallas Open by beating world No.108 Chun Hsin Tseng 7-6(5), 7-6(1), in one hour and 47 minutes on Stadium Court.
The American served 22 aces and won 84% of his first serve points in a match that was extremely tight.
“He was a good play,” Isner said of Tseng. “He’s young and he is very fast. He is great from the back of the court and for sure much better than I am. I had to use my serve to my advantage today”.
The Greensboro, North Carolina native got off to a fast start holding the opening service game and putting pressure right away on Tseng, setting up three chances for an early break with a sublime backhand winner down the line.
The Taiwan native did an impeccable job to save all three and managed to hold serve. The match stayed on serve until 4-3 when Isner had two more breakpoints but couldn’t find the breakthrough.
The first set was decided by a tiebreaker which was also very tight as the American found himself up 3-1 very quickly but again Tseng dug deep to win the next two points before Isner finally broke through to take a 5-3 lead. He eventually won the breaker 7-5 to clinch the opener.
Isner took the momentum into the second set which only had one breakpoint for Tseng but the number five seed was able to save it.
At 6-5, Tseng called for the physio and took a medical timeout to have work done on his lower back. The match went into another tiebreak where the American dominated by winning 7-1 and sealing the win.
After securing victory, Isner gave his sense of the match and how he was able to pull through.
” Truthfully the first set should have been easier and I was a little bit worn out after that first set emotionally but I was able to stay even in the second set and I played a really good tiebreaker. I am very happy”. He said.
Isner will next face the winner of the match between the American qualifier Zachary Svajda or Germany’s Daniel Altmaier.
Day 2 results
It was a busy day two of round-one action at the Dallas Open with eight first-round matches on the schedule. It started with an all-American matchup where the number seven seed Marcus Giron beat qualifier Alex Rybakov 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 in two hours and 14 minutes.
The number eight seed Adrian Mannarino beat Steve Johnson in straight sets (7-6, 6-2) while JJ Wolf beat another American qualifier Brandon Holt 6-3, 6-3.
Radu Albot found himself down a set to an American wild card Liam Krall but managed to fight back and win the match 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 47 minutes.
On Grandstand Mackenzie McDonald beat the Spanish qualifier Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-0 in 64 minutes while Jordan Thompson the Aussie beat Denis Kudla 6-1, 7-5 in one hour and 26 minutes.
Day 3 preview
Wednesday will once again be busy with both first and second-round matches to be played in Dallas.
Emilio Gomez of Ecuador will open on the Stadium court against Taro Daniel followed by Oscar Otte of Germany taking on the American Christopher Eubanks.
JJ Wolf, who is the number six seed, will face Radu Albot. Then in the night session, second seed Frances Tiafoe will face Mackenzie McDonald while the Canadian Denis Shapovalov plays China’s Yibing Wu.
