Karlovic and Groth advance at Hall of Fame tennis

NEWPORT, United States: Second seeded Ivo Karlovic and hard-serving Australian Sam Groth both won their opening round matches at the ATP Tour´s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Monday.

Croatia´s Karlovic hammered 17 aces in defeating American wild card Robby Ginepri 7-6 (7/2), 6-2, while Groth fired 11 aces in a 7-6 (9/7), 6-2 straight set win over fifth seeded Donald Young in the grass court tournament.

Both Karlovic and Groth rely heavily on their serves to get the job done. The 2.08 metre (6-foot-10) Karlovic held the record for the fastest serve in pro tennis at 251 km/h (156 mph) before Groth passed him in 2012 with a 263 km/h (163 mph) blast at a tournament in Busan, South Korea.

Groth, of Narrandera, New South Wales, moves on to the second round where he will face Malek Jaziri who beat Ricardas Berankis 7-5, 6-3 on Monday.Karlovic will play the winner of a match between Farrukh Dustov and Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Also, Steve Johnson breezed past fellow American Clay Thompson 6-1, 6-2 and former champion Rajeev Ram moved on with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Aussie Matthew Ebden. Ram was a surprise winner in 2009.

Israeli Dudi Sela defeated Pole Michal Przysiezny 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) and Japan´s Tatsuma Ito beat American wild card Mitchell Krueger 7-6 (9/7), 6-1.

The top seed is 2.08 metre American and two-time champion John Isner, who will open his tournament against qualifier Wayne Odesnik on Tuesday.Two-time finalist Nicolas Mahut, of France, overcame former world number one Lleyton Hewitt in last year´s Newport finale. Mahut and Hewitt are also scheduled to play on Tuesday.