Juan Martin Del Potro gusts away Marin Cilic to reach the quarter-finals – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
World number 11, Juan Martin Del Potro, continued his terrific run of form against the 22nd ranked Croatian, Marin Cilic, in the pre-quarters of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday. He registered straight sets 6-2, 6-4
win taking just an hour and 37 minutes.
The 10th seed Argentine won his sixth head-to-head match against the Croatian who has just been able to defeat Del Potro twice in his career. It was never a contest at all as the Argentine was dominating the show and
Cilic looked like a minnow throughout the contest.
Cilic opened up the match scores with a serve hold and Del Potro followed him up with two stunning winners down the line. In the following game, the Argentine bagged the first breakthrough of the match and took a lead of 3-1 that
was consolidated with a serve hold.
The Croatian faced another disaster in the fifth game when he was unable to save the second breakpoint of the game and gifted a lead of 4-1 to his competitor. Del Potro stayed focused and spared just two points on his serve before
building up a lead of 5-2.
Croatian tennis icon held his serve but not before he was forced to save a couple of breakpoints. However, he failed to keep the set alive by winning a breakpoint in the following game that rounded off the first set proceedings.
Cilic started the second set with a serve hold and so did his rival. He was tested a bit on his second serve but survived the pressure situation and pushed the scores to 2-1. Del Potro saved three breakpoints on the trot in the
fourth game to register a serve hold. It was the longest game of the match that witnessed a tough battle between the two contenders. However, Del Potro clinched the breakpoint in the following game that gave him a lead of 3-2.
Cilic was once again down the second set and couldn’t win a single point on his rival’s serve that consolidated the lead of the Argentine to 4-2. With no more breakpoints, the Argentine won the match and confirmed a date with the
16th seed Ukrainian, Alexandr Dolgopolov.
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