Cilic/Ljubicic cruise past Knowles/Melzer into quarterfinal – China Open 2011
Rated at number 39 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings of Men’s Doubles, the Croatian duo of Marin Cilic and Ivan Ljubicic cruised through the second round of the China Open, defeating the combination of Mark Knowles from Bahamas and Jurgen Melzer of Austria, on Wednesday.
Unseeded in the tournament, Cilic and Ljubicic took one hour to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to move into the quarter-final rounds of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 event.
It was the fourth victory of the current year for the Croatian duo and a much needed one as well. Cilic and Ljubicic combined their individual efforts with great mastery to oust their opponents in straight sets. They have a strict check on their error-count in the matchup and gave away minimum opportunities to Knowles and Melzer to come on top.
Despite of a phenomenal serve precision of 78 per cent, Knowles and Melzer clinched 25 out of 39 first serve points in the matchup, with their opponents doing the same from their 60 per cent accurate serve. Cilic and Ljubicic crafted a total of eight break opportunities in the matchup and converted three of them en route to victory in a comprehensive manner. Their opponents cashed the only break chance in the opening set and then kept trailing the scores in the rest of the match to finish on the losing side in the end.
Knowles and Melzer were off to an excellent start, breaking the Croatian serve in the very first game of the match, only to be broken in the next game to fall back on even terms. Cilic and Ljubicic nailed another crucial serve break in the ninth game and then serve out of the first set at 6-3 to get 1-0 in the contest.
The Croatian duo stung Knowles and Melzer in the third game of the next set to lead 3-1 and carried on their lead to finish off the contest at 6-4 to get through the quarter-finals.
Cilic and Ljubicic will take on the fourth seeded Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in the next round to battle for a place in the semi-final draw of the China Open. Bhupathi and Paes worked through the Chinese pair of Maoxin Gong and Zhe Li in the opening round, 6-2, 3-6, 10-3, to have a quarter-final berth.
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