Damm fires 16 aces to beat Shelbayh in Winston-Salem opener

Martin Damm came through his Winston-Salem first-round match against Abedallah Shelbayh 6-4 7-6, sealing it in a second-set tiebreak after edging the opener. The serve was the difference: the American struck 16 aces to Shelbayh's four and coughed up just one double fault, while the Jordanian handed over five. Damm landed 57.4% of first serves and won a punishing 87.2% of those points, well clear of Shelbayh's 67.4%, and the two were near-identical behind the second ball at 51.7% to 51.4%. With so little separating them on second serve, Damm's first-strike dominance carried him into the next round.