Evergreen bullet-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic fought off two match points to dispatch Tommy Robredo at the Barcelona Open on Monday.
The 39-year-old blasted 29 aces en route to a 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 victory to progress to the second round in his first appearance in Barcelona in 10 years.
Karlovic became the oldest player to make the semi-finals of an ATP tour event when reaching the last four in Houston’s US Men’s Clay Court Championships just two weeks ago.
The 6ft 11in powermonger has again extended that fine form, and will now face eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut.
Stefanos Tsitsipas toppled Corentin Moutet 6-4 6-1, with the 19-year-old adding to his already-impressive breakthrough campaign by rising to 63 in the world rankings.
The Greek teen star will now face seventh seed Diego Schwartzman.
Benoit Paire swept past Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 to book a meeting with fifth seed Pablo Carreno Busta, with wildcard Marcel Granollers strolling past Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2 6-2.
Tournament favourite Rafael Nadal will be looking to triumph for the 11th time at the event on the court named in his honour. He gets into action on Wednesday against the winner of Andreas Haider-Maurer against Roberto Carballes Baena.
Fresh from winning at Monte Carlo, Nadal is looking to take the Barcelona Open title for the third year running.
“It’s a very difficult field and my draw is not going to be easy,” the 31-year-old told a news conference on Monday. “I will have some tough opponents. I will need to play very well.”
Nadal will face late entry Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals should both players progress to that stage.
