Karlovic squeaks past Delbonis

Vienna - Ivo Karlovic of Croatia has saved three match points in the second set before beating Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-7 (1), 7-6 (9), 7-6 (2) on Tuesday at the Erste Bank Open.

The seventh-seeded Karlovic served 29 aces in a match that went to three tiebreakers and had no break points.

He will next play two-time former champion Jurgen Melzer or Norbert Gombos of Slovakia.

In other first-round play, Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany defeated seventh-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4, and Viktor Troicki of Serbia had 14 aces and conceded only five points on serve while beating Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic 6-0, 6-3.

Results on Tuesday from the ATP Austrian Open (x denotes seeding):

First round
Viktor Troicki (SRB) bt Vctor Estrella (DOM) 6-0, 6-3
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) bt Norbert Gombos (SVK) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
Ivo Karlovic (CRO x6) bt Federico Del Bonis (ARG) 6-7 (1/7), 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (7/2)
Benjamin Becker (GER) bt Victor Hanescu (ROM) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
Thomaz Belluci (BRA) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) 6-1, 6-4
Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt Guillermo Garca-Lopez (ESP x7) 6-3, 6-4