Marin Cilic, Nicolas Almagro advance to the second round of Internazionali BNL d'Italia
Marin Cilic beats Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 1-0 Retd.
World number 23 Marin Cilic of Croatia moved to the next round as his compatriot, world number 138 Ivo Karlovic retired in the first round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia at Foro Italico in Rome on Tuesday. Karlovic was trailing
4-6, 0-1 when he decided to forfeit the match due to an injury. The match lasted for an hour and two minutes.
Karlovic drew the first blood as he broke his opponent in the sixth game of the opening set, taking a 4-2 lead. However, Cilic broke back immediately in the seventh game and held his serve in the next game to level the score at
4-4. The 22-year-old broke again in the ninth game and served out the set at 5-4.
Cilic hit three aces and the same number of double faults in the first set. The Croatian was good with the serves, firing 71 percent of the first serves and winning 88 percent of the points on them.
The right-handed broke Karlovic in the opening game of the second set to take a 1-0 lead. At this moment, Karlovic decided to take retirement due to an injury.
Cilic will play David Ferrer of Spain in the second round. The Spaniard, seeded sixth at the event, received a bye in the first round.
Nicolas Almagro ousts Simone Bolelli 6-0, 7-5
Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, ranked 10th in the world, defeated world number 107 Simone Bolelli of Italy in straight sets 6-0, 7-5 to get through to the second round.
Almagro was flawless in the opening set, thrashing his opponent and breaking him three times to clinch a bagel set 6-0. The Spaniard fired two aces and 79 percent of the first serves in the first set. The right-handed impressively
captured 91 percent of the first service points in the opening set.
After losing the first set abysmally, Bolelli showed some resistance in the second set. However, that was not enough as Almagro broke the Italian in the 12th game to win the set 7-5. The Spaniard capitalized on both
break point opportunities he created in the second set.
Almagro is drawn to take on Sam Querrey of USA in the round of 32.
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