Marin Cilic, Ernests Gulbis advance to the third round of the 2011 BNP Paribas Open
Marin Cilic ousts Florent Serra 6-1, 6-3
Marin Cilic of Croatia thrashed Florent Serra of France in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 to move to the third round of the championship. The 22-year-old took just 55 minutes to undo his opponent in a one-sided contest.
The Croatian broke Serra twice in the opening set, winning it 6-1. He hit 7 aces and 59 per cent of the first serves in the first set. While, Serra hit 47 per cent of the first serves, winning 57 per cent of the points on
them.
After winning the first set easily, Cilic did not allow his opponent to come back in the match breaking him twice in the second set to clinch it 6-3.
The Croatian converted 2 of the 5 break points he received in the second set. The right handed saved both break points he faced in the set.
Cilic will face world number 14 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in the next round. The Swiss, seeded 12th at the championship, battled past world number 42 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in three sets
3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the second round.
Ernests Gulbis defeats Yen-Hsun Lu 6-7(1), 7-6(7), 6-1
World number 34 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia defeated world number 43 Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei in three thrilling sets in their second round match at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday. The score line was 6-7(1), 7-6(7), 6-1
In the first set, none of the two players was able to break each other’s serve, taking the set into a tie-break. Lu was almost flawless in the tie-break as he lost only one point, winning it 7-1.
The Taiwanese hit 65 per cent of the first serves in the opening set, winning 88 per cent of the points on them. In comparison, Gulbis hit only 60 per cent of the first serves and converted 82 per cent of them into points.
The second set saw both players breaking each other’s serve twice, levelling the score at 6-6. The Latvian clinched a mini-break late in the tie-break to win it 9-7.
The final set was completely dominated by Gulbis as he broke his opponent twice in the set, winning it 6-1. He converted both break points he received in the third set and did not face a single break point in the deciding
set.
Gulbis served remarkably well throughout the match hitting 19 aces and winning 84 per cent of the points on his first serves. The match lasted for 2 hours and 10 minutes.
The 22-year-old is slated to meet world number 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the third round. The Serbian cruised past Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan in straight sets 6-0, 6-4 in the second round.
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