Swiss Indoors Basel; Djokovic, Cilic and Tipsarevic breeze into the second round
The last year’s winner Novak Djokovic started off his tournament’s campaign strongly with a two-setter victory over Ernests Gulbis at the 2010 Swiss Indoors Basel Men’s singles competition on Tuesday. The final match score was 6-4, 6-2.
Djokovic, as a result of this victory has made his way into the second round of the ATP World Tour 500 indoor hard court tennis competition.
“It was the first clash of the competition for me, and you never know what to expect. At the start of the match I was trying to find a good rhythm and I kept in control of the match throughout. I was returning well, playing patiently, playing good tennis
when I needed to and I am glad to go through to the second round in straight sets,” reflected the world number three Serbian after his victory on Tuesday.
Djokovic, after winning also improved his ideal record in Basel to 6-0, having defeated Roger Federer in last season’s title battle. He is looking to capture his third crown in 2010 this week, following wins in Dubai and Beijing. The professional tennis
player from Serbia also made his way into his third major final at the United States Open earlier this season, ending as runner up in the end to the top seed and world number one Rafael Nadal.
The 23-year-old Novak, who owns a win loss mark of 53-14 on the year, will definitely try to continue his good form in the next couple of weeks on the tour as the Serbian prepares to contest in the elite eight man field in London, to be held from 21st
November this month. The former world number two will also lead his country in its first final of the Davis Cup versus France next month.
Meanwhile, the sixth seed Marin Cilic who was also a quarter finalist here back in 2009, opened his account in Basel with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Marco Chiudinelli, a wild card entrant from Switzerland. The professional tennis player from Croatia prevented all
four break point chances he faced and converted three of the nine opportunities he created to seal win in the end. The battle was stretched to a time period of eighty nine minutes on Tuesday. Marin, as a result of this victory has improved his win loss mark
to 39-20 on the year.
Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia will meet three-time former winner and world number two Roger Federer in the round two after triumphing in his first clash versus Denis Istomin in two sets. The final score line was 6-2, 6-4. The forty sixth ranked Janko, who is
playing in Basel on the very first occasion in his career, broke serve thrice to clinch his 25th tour-level match victory on Tuesday. He closed out the battle in seventy four minutes.
Former winner, David Nalbandian from Argentine prevented all five break point opportunities faced on serve to dispatch off Jan Hajek from Czech Republic in two sets. The final score line was 6-3, 6-4. World number 29, Nalbandian captured the Basel crown
on his championship debut back in 2002 and was also a finalist in 2002, 03 and 08.
Elsewhere, Richard Gasquet also looked quite impressive in his straight set win over number one Asian Yen Hsun Lu on Tuesday. The final score line was 6-3, 6-1. Richard converted four of fourteen break point chances and missed only thirteen points to make
his way into the next round of the tournament. The battle lasted for a time period of seventy nine minutes.
The French player, who was also a quarter-finalist here back in 2009, as a result of this win has improved his match record to 36-20 on the year, highlighted by his sixth career crown in Nice.
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