SHANGHAI: Giant American John Isner battled back from a set down against Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo to win his opening match at the typhoon-hit Shanghai Masters on Monday.

The 14th seed dodged heavy rain and swirling winds by playing under the closed roof at the Qizhong tennis center, taking time to impose his heavy-serving game on his 83rd-ranked opponent before he eventually emerged on top.

It was one of just four first-round matches played on day two of the tournament as the bad weather played havoc with the schedule, with veteran 11th seed Tommy Haas and Frenchman Gael Monfils among the other winners.

The six foot 10 inch (2.08 meters) Isner — America’s top player — lost the first set 6-4, but dug deep to win the second 7-5, leveling the match on his seventh set point.

Isner, who fired down 29 aces but made 32 unforced errors, broke Giraldo in the 12th game of the decider to take it 7-5.

He admitted afterwards that he had expected a tricky match.

“I started off a little slow in the first set. I told myself the only thing I could do was keep fighting. I felt like I was serving well, so just tried to hold serve as best as I could. That’s what I did,” he said.

“It took me a little while to break through in the second set, but I was able to. I think it was an accumulation of I was putting a lot of pressure on his serve really throughout the whole match. I feel like I had a lot of love-30s, a lot of breakpoints.” Germany’s Haas was untroubled by America’s Sam Querrey, easing to a 6-4, 6-4 win, while Monfils made short work of Japanese qualifier Tatsuma Ito, seeing him off 6-3, 6-2.

Earlier, Spain’s Marcel Granollers was a straight-sets winner over an out-of-sorts Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who required attention from the physio for an apparent left ankle problem.

Fifth seed Roger Federer, who along with the other top-eight seeds has a bye into the second round, on Monday teamed up in the doubles with China’s Zhang Ze, who has a singles ranking of 271, cruising into the second round.

The Swiss 17-time Grand Slam winner, who has slipped to seventh in the singles rankings, is in danger of missing out on next month’s end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals, currently held in London, for the first time since 2001.

He faces a potential quarterfinal meeting with defending champion and top seed Novak Djokovic, who has dropped one place to world No. 2 behind Rafael Nadal, despite beating the Spaniard in the China Open final at the weekend.

Typhoon Fitow slammed into China’s east coast early Monday, packing winds of more than 200 km (124 miles) an hour, killing at least five people and impacting three million, state media reported.

Sharapova withdraws

Maria Sharapova on Monday withdrew from the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul because of a right shoulder injury that has dogged her since before the US Open, The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced.

The 26-year-old Russian — presently number three in the world — had had to withdraw from the US Open on the eve of the tournament because of the injury and owing to a previous hip problem has played just one match since a second round exit at Wimbledon in June.

“I am very disappointed that I will not be able to play in the WTA Championships this year,” said Sharapova, whose turbulent season has also been marked by her splitting with Jimmy Connors after just three weeks as her coach.

“The fans in Istanbul have welcomed us each year with such intense passion and warmth, I will sincerely miss the energy and excitement they brought to the year-end tournament.

“I want to thank Istanbul for being a tremendous host and hope to play in Turkey sometime in the future.” While the crowd-pulling Russian won’t be there the WTA also announced that three further players had qualified for the tournament which takes place from October 22-27.

The trio are Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova, winner of two titles this season, Italy’s Sara Errani, who has won one of her four finals this campaign, and Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, who ended a three year title drought when she won in Bogota.

They join the already qualified Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska and Chinese star Li Na.

The WTA Championships features the top eight singles players and the top four doubles pairings competing for a record $6 million in prize money and is being hosted in Istanbul for a third successive year.