Australia had mixed fortunes in the second round of the Los Angeles Open on Thursday, with Marinko Matosevic winning through to the quarter-finals but Matthew Ebden crashing out.
Matosevic, the sixth seed, defeated Germany’s Tobias Kamke in a momentum-shifting 6-3 1-6 6-0 win to book a clash with either top-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire or American Michael Russell.
Ebden was overpowered 6-4 6-3 by Belgian fifth seed Xavier Malisse, who made some last-minute changes to his serve that helped him to a comfortable win in 73 minutes.
Malisse, who is into his third quarter-final at the UCLA campus facility, had snapped a losing streak in LA going back to 2005 when he won his opening match on Tuesday.
The last-minute technique modification resulted in a superlative 90 per cent average on first serves, an instant dividend for the 32-year-old ranked 72nd in the world.
“We’ve been working on changing my serving technique,” said Malisse, who will next play two-time champion Sam Querrey of the US, who is the the second seed.
“We only really changed it this morning, but I worked on it a bit in doubles (on Wednesday). I’m turning my foot a bit more on the court to get more power.
“It seems to be working,” said Malisse, who advanced after hitting eight aces and 22 winners against world No.78 Ebden, a quarter-finalist last week in Atlanta.
“I guess I have a new weapon. In tennis you can always learn new stuff, but you have to be open to change. That’s the only way you can get better. Hopefully I can keep serving like this.”
Veteran Malisse, who won his last ATP title five years ago, improved his record at the Los Angeles event to 9-8, with one more win on Friday putting him into only his second semi-final since his debut 11 years ago in 2001.
Qualifier Richard Berankis of Lithuania reached the last eight with a 6-4 7-5 defeat of Russian Igor Andreev while France’s Nicolas Mahut also won through after beating Italian Paolo Lorenzi 7-5 7-6 (9-7).
A