Tennis: Tomic toppled, Karlovic advances at Newport
John-Patrick Smith beat Bernard Tomic 6-3, 7-5 in the first round of the Hall of Fame Championships.
NEWPORT (AFP) - Australian John-Patrick Smith won his first ATP main draw victory Monday, upsetting third-seeded countryman Bernard Tomic 6-3, 7-5 in the first round of the Hall of Fame Championships.
Smith, ranked 156th, needed only 70 minutes to dispatch Tomic, taking 15 of 23 points off Tomic s second serve and surrendering only one service break to the world number 25.
Smith had been 0-5 in ATP matches after first-round losses this year to South African Kevin Anderson at Delray Beach and Frenchman Kenny De Schepper in five sets at Wimbledon.
Next up for Smith will be 166th-ranked American Jared Donaldson, who beat 125-rated compatriot Austin Krajicek 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2 in another opener on the grass courts outside the tennis legends honor hall where induction ceremonies will be staged Saturday.
Croatian second seed Ivo Karlovic blasted 11 aces and never faced a break point in battling past Ukraine s Illya Marchenko 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-4. Karlovic took the only break of the match to advance after two hours and 23 minutes.
Japan s Tatsuma Ito outlasted US wildcard Noah Rubin 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4 to book a second-round date with US seventh seed Steve Johnson, who downed Germany s Michael Berrer 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-2.
Also moving on was Colombia s Alejandro Falla, who ousted Spain s Adrian Menendez-Maceiras 6-1, 7-5.
