DELRAY BEACH — Top seed Jack Sock was “served off the court” while John Isner and Milos Raonic also exited on a day of upsets at the Delray Beach Open in Florida Wednesday.
Two months after clinching his first Masters 1000 title in Paris, Sock was in less stellar form, beaten 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 by fellow American Reilly Opelka 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the second round.
The 6-foot-11-inch Opelka used his height and power to fire down 17 aces, though the 20-year-old was not really happy with his biggest weapon.
“I didn’t serve as well as I’d have liked to or as well as I usually do,” the world number 228 said after the biggest win of his career.
“I was really pleased with how I played from the baseline though. I thought I hit my forehand great and made it really tough for him to be offensive, which is his game.”
Isner came out on the wrong end of three consecutive tiebreaks against German Peter Gojowczyk, who prevailed 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 7-6(5).
Thirty aces were not enough for Isner in a match that did not feature a service break.
Raonic was beaten more comprehensively, outplayed 6-2, 6-4 by American Steve Johnson, who earned his first ever victory over the Canadian.
Raonic was nonplussed by his own performance.
“I’ve got to definitely review it, think about it, because that was a pretty poor level I put out there today,” he said.
“Not much to be happy with. I had a tough time with a lot of things today.”
Johnson, who next faces Russian Evgeny Donskoy, a 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 winner over American Donald Young.
“The first set kind of got away from him with a second break so that is always comfortable,” Johnson said.
Second-seeded Juan Martin del Potro will try to book his quarterfinal berth on Thursday, taking on American Frances Tiafoe. Eighth-seeded Chung Hyeon of South Korea faces Croatian qualifier Franko Skugor for a place in the last eight.
Rain suspends play
Frenchman Gael Monfils led top-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-3 and was tied 7-7 in a second-set tiebreaker when heavy rain suspended play Wednesday night in the Rio Open.
In other second-round matches in the clay-court event, Chile’s Nicolas Jarry beat fourth-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 7-5, 6-3, and sixth-seeded Diego Schwartzman topped Argentine countryman Federico Delbonis 6-2, 6-3.
Pouille beats Herbert
Third-seeded Lucas Pouille advanced to the Open 13 quarterfinals after rallying from a set and 3-0 down to beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 Wednesday.
He withstood 15 aces from Herbert, with both French players dropping serve twice. Pouille, who recently won the Open Sud de France in Montpellier for a fifth career title, made the crucial beak in the ninth game of the deciding set and then served out the match. He next faces either countryman Gilles Simon or Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic.
There was an upset in Wednesday’s other second-round match as 36-year-old Frenchman Julien Benneteau won 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) against fifth-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
Second-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland and fourth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdcyh will play their second-round matches on Thursday.
In other first-round matches, No. 6 Gilles Muller of Luxembourg had 15 aces in a 7-5, 6-3 win against Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky; Mischa Zverev of Germany beat Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-4, 6-4, and French veteran Nicolas Mahut won 7-5, 7-6 (4) against 19-year-old Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. — Agencies
