US top seed John Isner and French second seed Gael Monfils breezed into the ATP and WTA Washington Open quarter-finals yesterday with impressive serving performances in straight-set triumphs.
Isner blasted 15 aces in downing Cypriot 15th seed Marcos Baghdatis 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 while Monfils fired 12 aces and won 22 of 23 first-serve points in defeating Croatian teen 16th seed Borna Coric 6-2, 6-3. Neither winner faced a break-point.
Monfils, the 2011 Washington runner-up, will next meet US eighth seed Sam Querrey, who ousted Ukraine 11th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Three-time Washington runner-up Isner next faces US fifth seed Steve Johnson, who ousted American qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-4, 6-4. Johnson won his first ATP crown last month at Nottingham.
No American has won the Washington title since Andy Roddick in 2007.
Ball-bashing Ivo Karlovic, the 37-year-old Croatian who won last week at Newport to become the ATP’s oldest singles champion since 1979, smashed 21 aces in dumping Australian third seed Bernard Tomic 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
US sixth seed Jack Sock downed Britain’s Daniel Evans 6-1, 7-5, to book a last-eight date with Karlovic, the only men’s quarter-finalist not among the top eight seeds. Sock hit only 44 % of his first serves but won 23 of 25 first-serve points.
French fourth seed Benoit Paire outlasted Luxembourg’s 14th-seeded Gilles Muller 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) and will play Germany’s Alexander Zverev for a semi-final spot. Zverev, 19, matched his Washington run last year by beating Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
 On the women’s side, Risa Ozaki, a 22-year-old from Japan who lost five of her prior six WTA matches before this week, outlasted Britain’s Naomi Broady 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, to reach her first tour quarter-final, where she will face Kazak sixth seed Yulia Putintseva. Ozaki ousted defending champion and second seed Sloane Stephens in her opening match.
 American Lauren Davis upset Puerto Rican third seed Monica Puig 6-4, 6-2 to reach a quarter-final against Italy’s Camila Giorgi, who advanced by walkover when Austrian Tamira Paszek withdrew with an upper respiratory infection.
 French fourth seed Kristina Mladenovic beat Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 6-3, and next plays Belgian seventh seed Yanina Wickmayer.
 Australian top seed Samantha Stosur meets US wildcard Jessica Pegula in the other women’s quarter-final.
 
Cibulkova advances to quarter-finals at Stanford
In San Francisco, Dominika Cibulkova, playing her first match since reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, defeated Urszula Radwanska 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in her opening match at the WTA Stanford tournament. The second-seeded Slovak was one of the last among the top seeds to begin play at the California hard-court tournament.
 Cibulkova jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the first set but Radwanska roared back to force the tiebreaker before Cibulkova prevailed in just over an hour. The pair traded breaks in the second set before Cibulkova was able to clinch it in the ninth game. Cibulkova will face Japan’s Misaki Doi in the quarter-finals. She is hoping that a strong performance in Stanford will vault her back into the top 10 in the world rankings.
 In other matches, 17-year-old Catherine Bellis beat Sachia Vickery 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a battle between two players ranked 203rd and 204th in the world. The American teen next faces 36-year-old top seed Venus Williams for a berth in the semi-finals.
 Bellis is no stranger to upset victories as she first burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old in the 2014 US Open when she stunned Cibulkova in three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Six months later she reached the third round of the Miami event where she faced Serena Williams for the first time. It will be her first time playing seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams. Bellis was born five years after Venus played her first career WTA Tour match at this event in 1994.

Little brother beats big brother Melzer in Austria
In Kitzbühel (Austria), Gerald Melzer came out on top in his Kitzbuhel ATP quarter-final duel with older brother Jurgen with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win. Jurgen, 35, won their only previous meeting last year in the opening round of qualifying at Wimbledon.
 But after dropping the first set, 26-year-old Gerald, ranked 107th in the world, rallied to win 10 of the last 11 games. “It was very difficult for both of us. It’s hard to face somebody you love that much because you don’t want to hurt that person. Winning points just doesn’t feel right,” Gerald Melzer said. “I might have been lucky with the rain break as the court became a bit slower. I was able to make returns that I didn’t make in the first set and a half. Then we got more into rallies and that’s when I felt way more comfortable.”
 Gerald Melzer will be playing in his second ATP World Tour semi-final where he will face Itralian fourth seed Paolo Lorenzi. Lorenzi reached his third career semi-final by seeing off German eighth seed Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5.

After three years, Cilic splits with coach Ivanisevic
Marin Cilic has split with coach Goran Ivanisevic after three years, the world number 12 said yesterday.
“I am no longer working with my coach Goran Ivanisevic,” Cilic, who won the 2014 US Open under the former Wimbledon champion, said on his website (www.marin-cilic.net).
“We have started to work together in September 2013 and we had a lot of success during that period, especially winning the US Open in 2014. It was a huge privilege to work with Goran, I enjoyed our work all this time and Goran helped me to reach many goals. Unfortunately, the road we were sharing on this journey is separating and I wish only the best for Goran in the future.”
 The pair last worked together at Wimbledon, where Cilic surrendered a two-set lead to lose to Roger Federer in the quarter-finals. Cilic was part of Croatia’s 3-2 comeback win over the United States in the Davis Cup quarter-finals last Sunday.


Related Story