ROME (AP)—John Isner celebrated his 25th birthday by rallying past Horacio Zeballos 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 Monday in the opening round of the Rome Masters.
Isner, the top American in the draw after Andy Roddick’s withdrawal, had 20 aces and faced only one break point—which he lost.
The 6-foot-9 Isner earned his first win on clay this season. The turning point came when a drop shot attempt from Zeballos hit the net to hand Isner his first break of the match and a 6-5 lead in the third set.
The American managed to shake off some nerves and finish off the Argentinean on his third match point.
Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo used a series of winners to upset former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-0, 6-3. The 76th-ranked Giraldo hit 32 winners to Ferrero’s nine, and required only 17 minutes to win the opening set.
The 12th-seeded Ferrero won the Rome tournament in 2001 and entered with an 18-3 record on clay this season. But Giraldo came in on a run of his own, having beaten tour veterans Nicolas Lapentti and Jarkko Nieminen in qualifying.
Ernests Gulbis of Latvia cruised past Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 6-2 and will face top-ranked Roger Federer.
In other matches, Italian wild card Paolo Lorenzi rallied to beat Albert Montanes 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany eliminated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-4.
The top eight seeded players have first-round byes in singles.