Tournament top seed John Isner has quickly sent a frustrated Sam Groth packing at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport.
In the battle of two of tennis’s biggest servers Groth was no match for the American world No.21, beaten 6-2 6-4 in a tick over an hour.
While serve was key in the encounter so were the number of unforced errors that spewed from Groth’s racket, especially on the backhand side, where he frequently struggled with simple shots.
Isner was joined in the second round by Croatian second seed Ivo Karlovic, who enjoyed an easy 6-4 6-4 win over America’s Denis Kudla.
While Groth was beaten, fellow Australian journeyman Matthew Ebden advanced to the quarter-finals.
The 29-year-old world No.249 defeated sixth-seeded Slovak Lukas Lacko 6-1 7-6 (7-2) to book a showdown with Germany’s Tobias Kamke.
Kamke earlier took out tournament third seed Adrian Mannarino, who couldn’t keep his form going after making the fourth round at Wimbledon, losing 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 to the German.
Mannarino’s French compatriot and tournament fourth seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert advanced though. He enjoyed a 7-5 2-6 6-3 win over Spain’s Adrian Menendez-Maceiras.