Marin Cilic bulldozes Federico Delbonis to advance to quarters – German Tennis Championships 2012
Seeded fourth in the draw, Marin Cilic of Croatia did not face much difficulty in routing the world number 140, Federico Delbonis of Argentina, in the second round of Bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships in Hamburg on Wednesday. The
Croatian allowed Delbonis to claim just five games in the entire contest, winning it 6-3, 6-2 in just an hour and 20 minutes.
Cilic and Delbonis held their serves in the opening seven games to take the score to 4-3 in favour of the former. The Croatian snatched a break in the eighth and made the most of it to triumph 6-3.
The 23-year-old gave a mixed serve performance on serves, hitting a single ace and 53 percent of the first deliveries. The right-hander won incredibly 16 of the 19 points on the first serve but nine of the 17 on the second ones.
Cilic responded pretty well to his opponent’s second deliveries, as he secured five of the nine points on them. The Croatian avoided the one break threat he came across and availed one of the two opportunities he had in the opener.
Cilic hit a blow to the Argentinean in the very first game of the second set and consolidated on it to gain a 2-0 advantage. The Croatian clinched his second breakthrough in the fifth and capitalised on the double strike to capture
it 6-2.
The 6ft 6in tall hit two aces and did not commit any double fault in the second set. His first serve percentage went down further, as he kept it at just 48. Cilic captured 10 of the 13 first and eight of the 14 second delivery
points. The Monte Carlo, Monaco resident did not give any break chance to Delbonis and won the two he received.
During the post match press conference, the Croatian said, “The challenge is to keep playing well as I played pretty good tennis last week and also a couple weeks back on grass. Coming here is not easy; I came here Monday and I’m
playing Tuesday, Wednesday, so it’s just the challenge to continue to play well and try to be focused as much as I can. Then we’ll see how long I can stay in the tournament.”
Cilic is drawn to meet Spain’s Albert Ramos in the quarter-finals. The Spaniard scored a hard fought victory against Lukas Rosol in three sets 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3 in the second round.
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