John Isner served up 26 aces in beating Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday night to reach the quarterfinals at the Memphis Open. The second-seeded American managed only five of those aces in dropping the first set. Isner, making his debut at this event at The Racquet Club, bounced back by serving up 11 aces in the second set where he won all 15 points on his first serve. He had 10 more aces in the third set winning 17 of 18 points on first service. American Ryan Harrison upset No. 3 seed Sam Querrey 6-3, 6-1 in 54 minutes. Harrison won the first five games and broke Querrey twice in taking the first set 6-3. Then he broke Querrey twice to go up 4-0 in the second set before finishing out the match. Harrison will play Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovinia, who was the first to advance to the quarterfinals by upsetting seventh-seeded Steve Darcis of Belgium 7-6 (2), 6-4. Donald Young beat fellow American Reilly Opelka 7-6 (3), 6-3 earlier Wednesday. Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia beat Australia's Jordan Thompson 6-3, 6-0, and will play top-seeded Ivo Karlovic on Thursday. Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan downed Germany's Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-4. Thiem downs Zverev Austria's Dominic Thiem battled into the second round of the Rotterdam World Tennis on Wednesday after Alexander Zverev's challenge fizzled out in a racquet-smashing tantrum. The German teenager lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 after dominating in the first set against second seed Thiem. He ended up smashing a racquet with five heavy blows in the final set after dropping serve. The meltdown did not help in the end, with world No. 8 Thiem going through after one and three-quarter hours to next face France's Gilles Simon. Cibulkova through Three players reached the quarterfinals of a soggy Qatar Open Wednesday during another rain-affected day which left top seed Anqelique Kerber still waiting to play her first match. No. 3seed Dominika Cibulkova, Zhang Shuai and Monica Puig were all able to complete their matches — in fact, both Zhang and Puig played two matches Wednesday — to make their way through to the last eight. But for the rest of the field it was another frustrating day as Qatar continued to suffer some of its worst weather in years. Of the few matches that were completed, Cibulkova's clash against Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was the pick. The Slovakian won in three sets, 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 and admitted afterwards it had been a hard match. Spain's Garbine Muguruza, the No. 5 seed, was the biggest casualty of the day, losing to Zhang 6-7 (7/3), 6-3, 5-7. Like Zhang, Muguruza was playing her second match of the day having earlier breezed past Turkey's Cagla Buyuakcay in her first round match, 6-3, 6-2. Puerto Rican Puig cruised through her first match on Wednesday thrashing Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-0, 6-1. Nishikori prevails Top-seeded Kei Nishikori overcame a slow start to beat local favorite Diego Schwartzman 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in a second-round match Wednesday at the Argentina Open. Nishikori, No. 5 in the ATP rankings, needed 2 hours, 6 minutes to advance. The Japanese star will next play Joao Sousa of Portugal in the quarterfinals. Earlier, Gerald Melzer of Austria upset eighth-seeded Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-3, 6-3 in the first round. And No. 5 Albert Ramos-Vinolas advanced in his second-round match when Argentina's unseeded Leonardo Mayer retired in the third set with an injury. Ramos-Vinolas was leading 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 1-0. — Agencies
