Isner, Tsonga win second-round matches
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Defending champion John Isner and top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France both won Tuesday in the second round of the Winston-Salem Open.
The third-seeded Isner, the highest-ranked American (10th) in the world rankings, was pushed to three sets before beating Slovakia's Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Tsonga, the highest-ranked player (sixth) in the final hard-court tournament before the U.S. Open, beat Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).
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Isner, who was born in nearby Greensboro, N.C., showed the effects of a two-week layoff, coming out sluggish against Klizan.
The left-hander broke Isner's serve in the opening game of the first set, and kept him scrambling with his groundstrokes.
However, Isner eventually picked up his game, serving 13 aces — the fastest recorded at 140 mph — and breaking Klizan's serve late in each of the final two sets.
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"I felt the match was going to be tough, and that's exactly what it was," Isner said. "He was playing pretty well, and I wasn't on top of my game. That's all it took in that first set, and from that point on I knew it was going to be a battle.
"I wasn't that great out there today, but as the tournament progresses, I should get stronger."
Isner will next face 13th-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria, who fought off a challenge from 303rd-ranked qualifier Michael McClune to win 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (12-10).
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Tsonga, a semifinalist at Wimbledon earlier this season, broke Bellucci's serve in the first set. But the Brazilian overcame four double faults to force a second-set tiebreaker.
"It was a good match for me," said Tsonga, who teamed with Michael Llodra for the silver medal in men's doubles at the London Olympics. "The second set, I had many occasions to finish it, but I did much better in the tiebreaker."
Tsonga will next play qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine, who upset 15th-seeded Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-2, 6-3.
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In addition to Andujar, three other seeded players were eliminated Tuesday: eighth-seeded Julien Benneteau of France, last year's Winston-Salem finalist; 11th-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and 12th seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
Benneteau lost to Poland's Lukasz Kubot 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, his second straight win over a seeded player; Istomin lost to Belgium's Steve Darcis 6-2, 6-2; while Anderson fell to qualifier Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).
Also advancing to Wednesday's round of 16 were second-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, fourth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine, sixth seed Marcel Granollers of Spain, seventh-seeded Sam Querrey, ninth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain, 13th seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria, 14th seed David Nalbandian of Argentina and 16th seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
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Berdych beat Alex Bogomolov Jr. of Russia 6-3, 7-5; Dolgopolov downed Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu 6-1, 6-3; Granollers won 6-4, 6-2 over Ryan Harrison; Querrey defeated Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-2; Lopez defeated Donald Young 6-2, 6-3; Nalbandian beat Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-4; and Nieminen was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Germany's Benjamin Becker.