Karlovic upsets Monfils to advance
Sam Gore Recaps Day 1
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CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Ivo Karlovic had 21 aces as he upset 13th seed Gael Monfils of France 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2) in the first round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters on Monday.
Need the scores from any match played in today's tournaments? The towering 6-foot-10 Croat, who beat Roger Federer en route to the semifinals last year, won the deciding tiebreak 7-2 to advance to the second round after 2 hours, 10 minutes.
Former world No. 1 Marat Safin, who is set to retire at the end of the year, eased past American Robby Ginepri 7-5, 7-6 (2), while seeded players Gilles Simon of France and Croatia's Marin Cilic also claimed first-round wins.
Up a set and leading 5-4 with two serves in hand in the second-set tiebreak, Karlovic appeared set to cruise to victory, but Monfils reeled off three superb points in a row to force a decider.
The Frenchman saved three break points in the fourth game of the third set but could not repeat his second-set fight-back in the tiebreak, allowing Karlovic to book a second-round clash with another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu, a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-3 winner over German Mischa Zverev.
Safin edged out Ginepri for the second time in a month, taking the second-set tiebreak 7-2 to clinch victory, but said he was finding it difficult to relax on court, despite knowing his career will soon draw to a close.
"At the end of the day, it's not like that [relaxing] because I always want to win," he said. "Always you get pretty tight in important moments and it's difficult to push yourself to play relaxed, even though you know this is the end.
"But still, you are a player deep inside, so it comes out in important moments, and you want to win no matter what. So you understand, but also subconsciously when you are getting into the game, the old you comes out," he said.
Ninth seed Simon eased past American wild card Wayne Odesnik 6-3, 6-2 and will now play Russian Igor Andreev, who beat Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-1, 7-5.
Croatia's 14th seed Cilic beat another former world No. 1 in Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-4 and will play another Spaniard in David Ferrer, who prevailed 7-5, 6-2 over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
Jose Acasuso of Argentina set up a second-round meeting with world No. 1 Federer by beating Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-4, 6-3, but 15th seed Tommy Robredo of Spain fell 6-3, 7-5 to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
World No. 6 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, beaten in the Rogers Cup final by Andy Murray on Sunday, withdrew from the tournament citing fatigue, organizers said.
