Philipp Kohlschreiber disposes off Ernests Gulbis in the second round – BMW Open 2012
Seeded fourth at his home event, Philipp Kohlschreiber overpowered world number 84, Ernests Gulbis, in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 in the round of 16 at the BMW Open in Munich, Germany on Thursday.
Kohlschreiber and Gulbis held their serve easily in the first three games of the opener but the Latvian had to save four break points in a 22-point marathon fourth game to level the score at 2-2. Both of them won their serve convincingly
in the following seven to take the score to 6-5 in the German’s favour. Kohlschreiber lost only one point in the 12th game and captured the first set 7-5.
The German had an extraordinary conversion rate on the slow clay courts, grabbing 16 of the 19 first and nine of the 12 second serve points. He also performed quite well on the second returns, as he pocketed 12 of the 23 of them.
The right-hander avoided the only break threat he faced and capitalised on one of the six chances he created.
Kohlschreiber went neck to neck in the first six games of the second set and squared off the score at 3-3. It was all Kohlschreiber show after that, as he snatched three successively to seal it 6-3.
The Altstaetten, Switzerland resident raised his performance on serve even higher in the second set, bombarding Gulbis with five aces and 72 percent of the first deliveries. He converted 15 of the 18 first and five of the seven
second serves into points. The 28-year-old’s only weaker link was his replies to the Latvian’s first deliveries, losing eight of the nine points on them but compensated that by clinching five of the 12 second ones.
Kohlschreiber required an hour and 37 minutes to topple the Latvian in an evenly contested encounter.
With this win, the German improved his record at the BMW Open to 14-6. He always performs quite well at this ATP World Tour 250 event, winning the title here in 2007 by beating Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, ranked 17th at
that time, in three sets 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Kohlschreiber has reached his third straight quarter-final at his home event by reaching the last eight this year.
He has bright chances to make it to the semi-finals, as he will play unseeded, Marinko Matosevic of Australia, in the quarter-final. Ranked 122nd in the world, Matosevic beat Colombian contender, Robert Farah, in the
second round.
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