Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus survived 26 aces and saved a match point to upset top-seeded Ivo Karlovic from Croatia in the second round of the Zagreb Indoors on Wednesday.
Baghdatis, the 2008 champ, converted his second match point to defeat Karlovic 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (9-7) in a thrilling match just shy of the two-hour mark.
Karlovic hit 83 per cent first serve and won 80 per cent of the first serve points, but Baghdatis played better at crucial moments.
Earlier, sixth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia swept past Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-1 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals. Youzhny won four games in a row but was broken when serving for the first set. He broke back to seal the first set and moved to 5-0 in the second.
Youzhny defeated Stakhovsky the last time they met in Zagreb three years ago, and leads their head-to-head 4-1.
Also Wednesday, former champion Ivan Dodig eased his way through to the second round defeating fellow-Croatian Mate Delic 6-2 6-3. Dodig, who won the title here in 2011, needed only 57 minutes to win, losing only seven points on serve.
Dodig will face eighth-seeded Spaniard Marcel Granollers who defeated former finalist Jurgen Melzer from Austria in the first round 6-2 7-6. Granollers faced no break point and won 88 per cent of points on first serve.
In other first round matches, James Ward from Great Britain defeated Croatian wild card Antonio Veic 6-2 6-4 while Igor Sijsling from the Netherlands beat Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic, 6-4 7-5.
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