Ivan Ljubicic dumps Nicolas Renavand to reach the quarterfinal round – Moselle Open 2011
Former world number three, Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, cruised through the second round of the Moselle Open, defeating the French qualifier, Nicolas Renavand, on Wednesday night.
The fourth seeded Croat took just one hour and nineteen minutes of play to wrap up his straight sets victory at 7-5, 7-5, to book a berth in the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
The contest was staged on the indoor hard courts of the Arenes de Metz, in Metz, France, with 29-year-old local veteran suffering a heavy defeat in front of his home crowd at the hands of Ljubicic. Renavand played brilliant tennis
in the qualifying draws to reach the main round of the Moselle Open and then outplayed the unseeded German, Tobias Kamke, in the opening round to meet the fourth seed Ljubicic. The French failed to register a single serve break in the entire matchup and eventually
succumbed to the experienced Croat in the second set.
Being the fourth seed in the tournament, Ljubicic received a bye to have a direct access to the second round and outclassed Renavand comprehensively to force his way to the quarter-finals in style. It was the 19th victory
for Ljubicic in the current ATP season, with 15 defeats already to his name.
The contest was pretty one-sided throughout, with the fourth seed dominating for the most of the time. Ljubicic belted 13 cracking aces in the matchup to clinch some un-fought points and converted two of his break opportunities
to come out as the winner in the end. He faced not a single break point from his bleak opponent and raced through the games with the utmost ease.
Ljubicic delivered 58 per cent of his serve on target and dropped merely four points on his serve en route to victory. The Croat registered his first serve break of the day in the 12th game of the opener to take the
first set at 7-5, getting one up in the contest.
The second set was a complete replication of the first one, with no serve breaks being witnessed in the opening 11 games. Ljubicic against stung a timely break point conversion towards the end to clinch victory at 7-5, booking
a place in the round of eight of the Moselle Open. He will play against either the seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber or the Dutch qualifier, Igor Sijsling, in the quarter-final clash.
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