Ivo Karlovic rallied past his way to victory against Daniel Brands with a 7-6 (8) 7-6 (6) score line. During this match, Karlovic unleashed 26 aces to derail the progress of Brands and made it look simple in the end as he surged his way to the second round of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships on Thursday.

Looking satisfied over his performance, Karlovic said, “It was a close match, but I feel that on his serve I had more opportunities than him.” He further added “in the tiebreakers I was a little bit more with concentration so I won.”

In another match, seventh-seeded James Blake of USA earned the berth in the quarterfinal after defeating Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-3 6-1. Defending Champion American, Mardy Fish, sailed through the second round after securing an easy win over Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-2 6-4.

Mardy reflected on the match, as he quoted, “When it mattered, I got a few points when I needed to. I got it my own way there in the second after a couple of breaks of serve. I got them back right away, so he wasn’t able to gain momentum at all in the second set. It was kind of ugly tennis at some points, but I don’t care. I’ll take it.”

In an exciting match, fourth-seeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy made it into the last eight by defeating Santiago Giraldo of Colombia with a 7-5  4-6 7-5. Ernests Gulbis of Latvia also surged into the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia.