CHARLESTON, South Carolina — Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber was pushed to a third-set tiebreaker by 80th-ranked Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena before winning 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(3) and advancing to the third round of the Volvo Car Open clay court event here.
Defending champion Kerber lost the first point of the decider before running off the next four to seize control as the German claimed the tie-break 7-3 to end a two hour, 38 minute marathon in Charleston.
“First of all, the first rounds are always tough and Lara played an unbelievable match,” Kerber said. “After the first set, she was fighting. She is a great player and a great clay court player.”
The match-up did not look likely to produce such drama as the Spaniard had taken only five games in two previous meetings with top-seeded Kerber, including a 6-3, 6-0 loss in the round of 16 here last year.
In another three-set cliffhanger, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia saved four match points before ousting 11th seed Kristina Mladenovic of France 4-6, 6-4, 7-6, prevailing 13-11 in the tie-break to reach the third round.
In first-round matches, 10th seed Sam Stosur of Australia was a 6-4, 6-4 winner against qualifier Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia, and Canadian Eugenie Bouchard beat Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 6-3, 6-4.
Verdasco advances
Former champion Fernando Verdasco of Spain became the last player to advance to the second round of the US men’s clay court championships Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq.
Verdasco, who won North America’s only men’s clay-court tournament in 2014, came back from a break down in the second set to close out the match by winning the last five games. He’s one of seven players among the final 16 who are at least 30 years old.
But the last of the eight second-round matchups Wednesday will have the 18-year-old American Tommy Paul against 19-year-old Hyeon Chung of South Korea. Paul, the French Open junior champion in 2015, ousted Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-2, 6-3 Tuesday for his first ATP World Tour singles victory.
Querrey moved on by defeating the huge-serving 6-10 American teenager Reilly Opelka 6-4, 7-6 (4), Young beat countryman Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-3 and Smyczek rallied to eliminate Nicolas Kicker of Argentina 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus routed Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 6-0 in the first ATP World Tour match this year in which the losing player failed to win a game.
Other players advancing were Benjamin Becker of Germany, who beat countryman Michael Berrer 7-6 (6), 6-0, and Australia’s Matthew Barton, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe, whose family came to the US from Sierra Leone.
