WINSTON-SALEM (North Carolina): Defending champion Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic opened with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) victory on Monday over Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open.

The 6-foot-5 Rosol served 14 aces and took advantage of a break point in the seventh game of the first set to improve to 3-1 all-time against Gulbis, and 2-1 this year, in the final tournament before next week’s US Open.

Rosol, who was ranked as high as 26th in the world in 2014 before slipping to his current No 86 spot, will face Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz in a rematch of last year’s Winston-Salem Open final.

In that match, Janowicz won the opening set 6-3, but Rosol fought back to take the next two sets 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 for his second career title.

In other matches at the Wake Forest Tennis Center, which had a 2-hour, 15-minute rain delay, 19-year-old Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia upset Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-5) and will face Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili in the second round.

Also on Monday, 17-year-old qualifier Frances Tiafoe overcame 30 aces by Australia’s James Duckworth to win 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3), and 37-year-old Tommy Haas of Germany, on the comeback from shoulder surgery, lost to Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4.

Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin downed Donald Young of the U.S. 6-3, 6-3.

WINSTON-SALEM: Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis returns a shot to Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic during their match at the Winston-Salem Open.—AFP

Tiafoe, who will play Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci in the second round on Tuesday, became the youngest American to win his first ATP World Tour match since then-15-year-old Ryan Harrison won in Houston, Texas, in April 2008.

RADWANSKA CRUISES INTO SECOND ROUND

NEW HAVEN (Connecticut): Agnieszka Radwanska breezed into the second round of the Connecticut Open with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over American CoCo Vandeweghe on Monday at Connecticut Tennis Center.

The Krakow, Poland native needed only 65 minutes to set up a second-round meeting with France’s Aliza Cornet, who advanced with a three-set win against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.

Among the other top players to advance were 20-year-old American Madison Keys and sixth-ranked Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.

Next up for Keys is fourth-ranked Petra Kvitova, who is the top remaining seed at No 2 after Romanian Simona Halep withdrew on Sunday due to injury.

Eighth-ranked Karolina Pliskova, also from the Czech Republic, survived a scare from Slovakia’s Polona Hercog before advancing with a 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory.

Also on Monday, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard lost to Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-0 and France’s Kristina Mladenovic knocked off eighth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybar­ikova, Ukraine’s Olga Savchuk and France’s Caroline Garcia also advanced to the second round.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2015

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