Australia's Wayne Arthurs absorbed and eventually overcame the awesome firepower of Croatian Ivo Karlovic to move into the second round of the AAPT tennis championships.

Arthurs prevailed in a rain-interrupted shoot-out 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 at Memorial Drive and now plays No.2 seed Vince Spadea in the second round.

While Karlovic served 24 aces, Arthurs sent down 14 of his own and his greater experience and creativity around the court paid huge dividends in a match which lasted two hours and 20 minutes and finished after midnight local time.

Seven months after blasting Lleyton Hewitt out of the opening round at Wimbledon, 208cm Karlovic was threatening to gate-crash another Australian party when he led 4-3 in the second-set tiebreak.

But a second-service ace put Arthurs back on level terms and he never looked back.

"It was a big point in the match and it's where I've won a lot of my matches - by going for it in tiebreakers," Arthurs said.

"I just had to hang in there against his serve and hope and hope and hope."

Karlovic double-faulted on match point - it was the only service break of the match.

Earlier, Swede Thomas Johansson announced his return to professional tennis with a straight sets demolition of Belgian Christophe Rochus.

It was the 2002 Australian open winner's first match for 14 months but, from the first point, it was as though he'd never left the circuit.

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