TENNIS Cilic, Isner Return With Mixed Results>>>

SPORT DADDY NEWS TENNIS

Ferrer, Delbonis advance in Geneva

Lukas Rosol withstood 29 aces and outlasted John Isner in two hours and 22 minutes to spoil the American's return to the ATP World Tour on Wednesday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. Rosol prevailed 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-6(5).

Fourth-seeded Isner gained the match's only service break at 6-5 in the first set, but the unseeded Rosol took the second set to even the contest. At 5-all in the third set tie-break, Isner sailed a forehand long to give Rosol a chance to serve for the match. The Czech capitalised on his first opportunity with a service winner.

It was Isner's first match since April 10. The 6'10” 30 year old missed the season's three earlier ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events on clay because of a knee injury.

Rosol, No. 68 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will face Andrey Kuznetsov in the quarter-finals. The Russian defeated seventh-seeded American Steve Johnson 7-5, 6-4. The 25 year old Kuznetsov improved to 18-9 and has now reached four quarter-finals this season, including the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, the Open 13 Provence and the Barcelona Open BancSabadell.

Marin Cilic enjoyed a more pleasant return to tour-level play. The Croat dismissed Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 7-6(5). Cilic had been out since March 27 because of an injury to his right knee. “Very happy to be back, especially after such a long break. I didn't play any tournaments on clay, and considering this is the first match, I feel that I played a very high level of tennis,” Cilic said. “I'm extremely happy with the way I was moving on the court.”

Cilic will play the sixth seed Federico Delbonis, who swept Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-0. Delbonis, currently a career-high No. 33 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is trying to reach his third consecutive semi-final (BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open). Cilic won their lone previous FedEx Head2Head meeting, on clay in 2012 in Hamburg.

Denis Istomin was up 6-3, 3-2 on No. 2 seed David Ferrer when the Uzbekistani had to retire because of a right buttock strain.