Marin Cilic eases past Matthias Bachinger into the last eight – BMW Open 2012
Third seed, Marin Cilic of Croatia, advanced just to his second quarter-final of the season, as he routed the German contender, Matthias Bachinger, in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 in the second round at the BMW Open in Munich, Russia
on Wednesday.
Cilic and Bachinger won their serve in the first six games of the opener, squaring off the score at 3-3. The Croatian captured three consecutively after that, breaking the German in the seventh and ninth game to win 6-3.
Ranked 24th in the world, Cilic smacked one ace but committed a couple of double faults. The right-hander had a low first serve percentage of 52 but succeeded in converting 10 of the 12 of them into points. He pressurised
Bachinger with the help of aggressive returns, clinching six of the 15 first and seven of the 14 second reply points.
Carrying the winning momentum into the second set, Cilic snatched a break in the fourth game and held his following serve to go up 4-1. Serving to stay in the match at 2-5, Bachinger was unable to hold and lost it 2-6.
Cilic improved his serve further, as he bombarded four aces and 83 percent of the first deliveries, securing 15 of the 19 points on them. The Croatian continued to reply brilliantly to the German’s serves, converting seven of the
17 first and six of the 10 second returns into points in the second set.
The 24-year-old has failed to do well in this season, having a win/loss record of 4-5 on the ATP World Tour. A knee injury at the end of last year ruled him out from this January, which meant that he had to stay away from Aircel
Chennai Open and Australian Open. The Croatian began at the Delray Beach International, where he was upset by the then world number 43, Jarkko Nieminen, in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 2-6 in the opener. Before this event, Cilic had been unable to reach even the last
16 at any tour level event this year.
The Croatian will face either Santiago Giraldo of Colombia or sixth seed, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, in the quarter-final.
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