Rising American tennis player Jared Donaldson has lost in round one of the European Open. World No. 102 Sergiy Stakhovsky beat the American on Monday in Antwerp 7-6 (7-4) 6-4. It was the first-ever meeting between the two.
Stakhovsky started the match with a break point chance saved before he took a 1-0 lead. Stakhovsky blew two consecutive set points at 5-4 in his favor as Donaldson made it 5-5. The set eventually went to a tie-break. Both players were tied at 4-4 in the tie-break when Stakhovsky won three points in a row to take the opener.
Both players comfortably held their serves until the ninth game of the second set.
Stakhovsky broke Donaldson in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead. The Ukrainian then served out for the match in the following game.
Stakhovsky hit eight aces and won 83 percent of his first serve points during the match. The Ukrainian also converted 1-of-4 of his break point chances and saved Donaldson's only break point opportunity. The match came to an end after just less than an hour and a half of play.
Karlovic barely through
Big-serving Ivo Karlovic has progressed to the European Open second round. Karlovic, 38, edged Argentine Guido Pella in a thrilling match. The Croatian escaped with a narrow 3-6 7-5 7-6 (12-10) win over the Argentine.
Pella saved a break point chance in the third game before he broke Karlovic later on to take a 4-2 lead.
Pella then held on to his serve to clinch the opener. Interestingly, Karlovic's only points dropped on his serve in the first set came in the sixth game.
Karlovic saved two break points in the seventh game before he took a 4-3 second set lead. Pella returned the favor by saving a break point in the following game. Karlovic broke Pella for the first time in the match in the 12th game to force a decider.
As no breaks of serve were seen, the third set firmly went into another tie-break. Pella blew three match points at 6-5, 8-7 and 10-9 in his favor. Karlovic won three points to save Pella's third match point and clinch the win, eventually. Karlovic didn't convert his first two match points which came earlier in the tie-break.
Karlovic's serve clicks
Karlovic fired 15 aces and won 87 percent of his first serve points on Monday in Antwerp. The Croatian broke Pella once and saved 2-of-3 of the Argentine's break point chances. It took two hours and 11 minutes of action for the clash to come to an end in the first-ever meeting between Karlovic and Pella. Karlovic will now play the winner of the match between Pablo Cuevas and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
