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Roddick gets past Istomin; Bryan Brothers lose at Delray ITC

Ivo Karlovic, left, and Frank Moser upset the No. 1 doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan Thursday at the Delray Beach ITC.

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — Andy Roddick got a measure of revenge Thursday evening at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships when he beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 7-5.

In the night cap, unseeded Frank Moser of Germany and Ivo Karlovic of Croatia stunned the crowd by upsetting Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, the top seed in the doubles portion of the tournament and the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the world, 4-6, 6-4, 10-4.

Roddick’s win sets up a quarterfinals match with Kevin Anderson of South Africa Friday evening at 7:15. Roddick is the No. 4 seed; Anderson, the 7th seed. Friday afternoon No. 1 John Isner faces No.8 Bernard Tomic of Australia.

Istomin, unseeded in the tournament, beat Roddick two weeks ago in the quarterfinals of a tournament in San Jose 6-2, 6-4.

“It was nice to come here and get one back,” Roddick said afterwards.

In one sequence during the first set, Roddick seemingly took control by breaking Istomin’s service. But in the following game, a linesman called a foot fault on Roddick, and that set off the Boca Raton Prep grad.

Istomin took advantage, and broke back. Roddick regrouped and broke Istomin’s service again. Three games, three broken services.

Roddick admitted he did not know whether his left foot had violated the baseline on the serve in question, but he likened the call to “a rookie referee making a call in the last two minutes of an NBA game. It just doesn’t happen.

“Who knows if I did or didn’t? But it was a tough time for it.”

After a slow start this year, Roddick said his game is coming together. His serve during the match topped 130 mph on occasion and hit as high as 136. He said he’s returning the ball better as well.

“Even if I’m missing, I’m missing, I’m hitting better. There is progress being made; that said there is more progress to be made.”

The loss by the Bryan snapped a nine-match winning streak at the Delray Beach ITC, having won the tournament in 2009 and 2010. They were 12-3 at Delray going into Thursday's match.

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The Bryans in action Thursday night.

Bob Bryan signs a racket for a fan. Bryan literally emptied his equipment bag handing out items to the fans, including two rackets, wrist bands, tape and bits of string. Bryan stuck around long enough to autograph the stuff to fans who asked.