Carlos Berlocq falls to Marin Cilic in the second round at Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Croatia’s Marin Cilic had an easy victory over the world number 72 Carlos Berlocq of Argentina in the second round of 2011 Internazionali BNL d’Italia at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. Ranked twenty third in the world, Cilic took
down his opponent in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, taking just one hour and twenty four minutes to ensure his berth in the third round of the tournament.
The 22-year-old Croat displayed magnificent tennis skills to expel the Argentine player from the tournament. Even though Berlocq’s conversion rate was not way too different than his opponent’s, still Cilic’s break points conversion
rate tuned out to be the winning edge. The Croatian player sliced his way around the court, constantly keeping the Argentine on the back foot. The abrupt changes in Cilic’s shots kept Berlocq off balance throughout and he came up with plenty of errors and
mistiming of lot of shots.
Cilic took the early lead in the first set, breaking Berlocq in the second game and racing to a 3-0 lead. The Argentine had no mood to surrender either as he clinched three straight games to tie the score at 3-3. Serving at 4-5,
Croat beautifully maneuvered the Argentine and utilized his two-handed backhand to great effect and close out the first set with a 6-4 score. The Croat was able to save two service breaks from Berlocq, and while he gave up two breaks on his own serve, he was
totally in control of the first set.
The Croat played extremely well and finally got the job done, proving himself marginally the better player statically. After losing the first set, the Argentine bounce back immediately to take a 2-0 lead. He raised his first serve
accuracy to nine percent but won a meager 47 percent on them. Cilic totally exploited his poor conversion rate and won four of the next six games to take the set 6-3. Cilic earned 64 percent on his service, 54 percent on return and 58 percent of points in
total to close out the match in straight sets. With this win, the Cilic now leads their head-to-head to 1-0.
Cilic will face Mardy Fish of America in the third round of the tournament. Fish is the only American left in the draw who edged past Ivan Ljubicic in the second round to stay on track for a meeting in the third round. The players
have met each other on three different occasions with Cilic leading their head-to-head sequence by 3-0. The Croat has never allowed the American to win a single match, however this time Fish is in full form and things could go either way.
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