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  • Haas gets revenge win over Hartfield while Isner falls

    2/26/08 4:25 PM | Jonathan Morgan
    - Tommy Haas showed great form bouncing back from his loss to Hartfield in Delray 2 weeks ago. Isner loses in another 3rd set tiebreak to Melzer, who continues his awesome form against big servers.

    Defending champ Tommy Haas was able to score a win in solid fashion over Hartfield in Memphis on Monday, 6-2, 6-3. Haas has previously won this event 3 times before and looked good in his opening round revenge win over Hartfield.

    You could tell from the first ball that Haas was going to win. It was clear that he still isn't at 100%, but he didn't need to be, not tonight. It was a tiny bit of a struggle as Haas was broken once in each set, but on Hartfield's serve it seemed that Haas was going to get a break every single time. Haas was constrantly pressuring the Argentine's first and second serves and usually had the advantage from the baseline.

    John Isner lost to Austrian Jurgen Melzer in a 3rd set tiebreak, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, just as he did to Garcia-Lopez last week. Melzer threw down 19 aces to Isner's mediocre 18. There were only 2 break points all match, one being the one that Melzer took in the second set, and one being the one that Melzer saved in the 3rd. Most points were very quick, a standard in an Isner match, and the only receiver won points basically came from the second serve. Despite the fact that Melzer won 21 more points than Isner, the American still had a match point at 6-5 in the 3rd set. Melzer then erased that break/match point with an ace. Isner will need to win more of these 3rd set breakers, as he did last year in Washington, as they seem to be par for the course in his matches.

    Australian Chris Guccione was able to take out fellow big server Robert Kendrick in a pair of tiebreaks. Tough luck for Kendrick as he had 7 break point chances in the first set and couldn't convert. Guccione served well on the break points as well as in the tiebreaks to steal the win. Kendrick even won 4 more points than Guccione.

    Frenchman Florent Serra was able to upend Brazilian clay courter Marcos Daniel 6-1, 6-2. Daniel seemed like a fish out of water in this match as Serra had absolutely no trouble doing anything today. He grabbed control and never let up. Winning in a similar fashion was extreme veteran Jonas Bjorkman as he destroyed Paul Capdeville 6-1, 6-3. Capdeville had no excuse for such a loss, as he is a much better player than he showed today. Bjorkman served very well, didn't face a break point, and owned the baseline exchanges. The final result from today was Colombian Alejandro Falla beating Israeli Dudi Sela 6-2 6-4. An up-and-down match this one was in the first set as both players were able to use big first serves to win points but were eaten alive when faced with the prospect of hitting a second ball. Break points were the meal of the day, and Falla ate more. In the second set, Falla was able to up his first serve % to 78, losing just 2 points all set. Sela, meanwhile, was being pressured every service game with his low first serve % and solid baseline play from Falla.

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