Ivan Ljubicic takes down Marin Cilic to advance into the second round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
World number 33, Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, stunned his 27th seed fellow compatriot, Marin Cilic, in the opening round of the Wimbledon Championships, being played at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon,
London, England, on Tuesday afternoon.
The contest lasted for two hours and forty five minutes before Cilic fell to the 32-year-old veteran at 6-7(2), 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, ending his voyage in the third Grand Slam tournament of the current year.
It was an entertaining contest, with both men fighting hard for survival in the opening round draws. The crafty Ljubicic had an ordinary start to the game but still managed to clinch the opener, only to drop the following set to
Cilic. The unseeded Croat then powered his way through the next two sets to wrap up victory and earned a pass to the second round of the mega event.
Both these men first faced each other in 2008, in the round of 64 at Indian Wells, where Ljubicic stood victorious at 7-6(7), 7-5, after a tough fight with his fellow countryman. Ljubicic registered his 16 victory of the running
ATP (Association of Tennis Professional) season, improving his individual record against Cilic to 2-0.
Despite of a par first serve accuracy of 57 per cent, Ljubicic belted 21 rapid aces in the matchup and reeled off 56 out of 69 first serve points en route to victory. His unforced error count was also on the lower side, as Cilic
spilled out 32 mistakes to assist his opponent to victory. Ljubicic took off the opening set with aggression, delivering assertive winners and breaking his opponent’s serve early. Cilic also replied with the same, dragging the opener into a tie breaker round,
as the scores got levelled at 6-6. He lost his focus in the decider, securing merely two points before dropping the first set to Ljubicic at 6-7(2).
After winning the opening set, the Croat veteran went through a poor slump in the next one, submitting the set to Cilic at 3-6 in merely 28 minutes of play. He quickly regrouped and absolutely blew away Cilic in the following two
sets to conclude victory and getting access to the second round draws of Wimbledon.
Ljubicic will face Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, in the second round of the Grand Slam tournament on Wednesday for a berth in the third round. Stakhovsky was successful against the British wildcard, Daniel Cox in the first round,
defeating him in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, to meet Ljubicic.
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