A resilient John Isner overcame Philip Kohlschreiber 2-6,7-6(3),6-2, here at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia as he denied the German to close the match when he served for it in the second set at 5-4.

Isner was rampant in the third set as he broke the German twice and only dropped a miserly three points on serve. He now prepares to battle Italian No.1 Andres Seppi, who won a clay court title in Belgrade, recently.

The American managed to deflect a third straight loss on clay, after being a seven match winning streak on the surface which included wins against the likes of Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Twelfth seed – Nicolas Almagro also had to dig deep in order to win his first round match against recent Munich finalist Marin Cilic. Almagro won 6-2, 3-6,6-0 to win his first match against the Croatian in three attempts.

Radek Stepanekof the Czech Republic also went through to the next round as he beat Juan Ignacio Chela in three sets 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. Chela is now winless in six matches.