DALLAS. John Isner extended his record by winning his 499th career tiebreak to reach the quarterfinals of his hometown Dallas Open with a 6-3, 7-6(1) victory over Daniel Altmaier on Thursday.
Isner won the final seven points after losing 1–0 in a tie-break after receiving two of his 18 aces. The American number five reached the semi-finals of the first tournament in Dallas last year.
Another 2022 semi-finalist, top-seeded American Taylor Fritz, joined Isner in the quarter-finals in a 7–6(5), 6–4 win over wild-carded Jack Sock of the United States.
Isner made the only break of his match to take a 4-2 lead in the first set and then closed the set with his love on his serve.
The second round victory came after Isner won both tiebreaks in straight sets, defeating Chun-Hsin Tseng. Isner won the last six points of the second tiebreaker against Tseng with a big serve. Roger Federer has the second most career tiebreaker wins with 466 wins.
Isner will face Emilio Gomez, who has rallied to force out the Serb with fourth seed Miomir Kecmanovic 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.
Fritz’s opponent in the quarterfinals was the American Marcos Giron, seeded under the seventh number, who defeated the German Oscar Otte with a score of 6-4, 6-3.
No. 8 seed Adrian Mannarino of Italy advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6–2, 7–6 (3) win over Australia’s Jordan Thompson.
Mannarino will face China’s Yibin Wu, who beat Canadian third seed Denis Shapovalov 7-6(1), 6-4.
Isner was leading 3-1 in the tie-break when Altmayer lost a second consecutive point on his serve, receiving Isner’s volley but sending it off target, the German slammed his racquet in desperation.
After an ace and Isner’s winning volley, Altmaier missed with a drop shot at match point.
“I just played great on the tiebreak to win the match, and I also played great on the tiebreak for my first-round win,” said Isner, whose home is a few blocks from the indoor court on the SMU campus.
Fritz, who said goodbye in the first round, won the last two points in a tight first set tiebreaker, got the only break of the match to start the second set and advanced on his third match point. Fritz finished in eighth place, beating Sok in this competition for the second year in a row.
Isner wins 499th tiebreak to advance to Dallas Open originally appeared on NBCSports.com
Source: sports.yahoo.com
