ASB Classic Champions succumb as tennis goes indoors to beat the storm
ASB Classic Champions succumb as tennis goes indoors to beat the storm
As the ASB Classic moved indoors to bypass the rampant Cyclone Hale sweeping the country, there was a storm developing under cover at the men’s ASB Classic at Auckland’s ASB Tennis Arena.
Two former champions were swept away in the first round, with two-time winner John Isner falling to French qualifier Gregoire Barrere 6-7 7-6 6-3.
The 2.03m American usually eats up tiebreaks, but after winning the first, he was out-pointed by the Frenchman in the second and fell away in the decider.
The popular Isner did manage to make one significant breakthrough, with his 28 aces pushing over the 14,000 mark for career aces, the most of any player.
“He is very tough especially on the hard court but it is also my best court so I knew I had a chance,” said Barrere. “I returned serve well today although I broke him only once.
“The key was to stay focussed on my serve and after that, try to hit as many balls off his serve as I can and take the chance. The main thing was to keep my serve and then try to get to his serve It is a very big win for me and I am very happy with how I played today.”
Defending champion Ugo Humbert was the other past winner to fall in another closely fought affair 6-7 6-7 to 2m tall American Christopher Eubanks.
“I knew going against Ugo that there was going to be a lot of serves and not many chances to break so the most important thing for me was to hold my serve. I was able to do that today,” said Eubanks.
“The extra games in qualifying helped. I got here a little bit early last week and with the WTA event on I had to come inside early to get some practice and that has helped me a lot today with our game going indoors.”
In other games Marcos Giron (USA) won a close-fought battle with Argentine’s Federico Coria 6-7 6-4 7-5 and Frenchman Quentin Halys accounted for Alex Molcan 6-3 6-4.
Halys will have a battle on his hands when he meets wildcard Ben Shelton, 20, tomorrow, after he fought hard to grab the first set over 22-year-old Sebastian Baez from Argentina, but then the American dominated to win the second set 6-1.
Shelton is enjoying many firsts, including his first time ever out of the United States and was pleased with his effort today.
“I did a really good to stay composed in the first set. I had a difficult week in Adelaide last week and this being my first time out of the USA, I was happy with my ability to adapt after this first week, get my bearing and I did a pretty job for a first-up match tonight.”
Tomorrow the Big Guns fire for the first time with both Casper Ruud and Cam Norrie in action, and here’s hoping all that puffs and blows is from the players on the court and not the weather gods.