Marin Cilic followed up his weekend indoor title by beating Lukas Rosol 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday, while former champion Mikhail Youzhny was bundled out at the Rotterdam World Tennis tournament.
The unseeded Cilic came to the Dutch port city fresh from a fourth title at home in Zagreb, where he beat Tommy Haas. The former world No. 9 is scheduled to play fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his next match.
Youzhny, seeded seventh, went down double breaks in both sets as the 2007 winner fell to Dutchman Igor Sijsling 6-2, 6-2.
Photo: EPA
Youzhny’s loss streak this year is now entering a second month after he won his only match of the season a month ago in the first round of the Australian Open.
Latvian Ernests Gulbis earned a second-round spot as he beat Uzbek Denis Istomin 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) in 90 minutes.
French player Gilles Simon withdrew and was replaced in the draw by Daniel Brands. Simon could not recover from the back pain he felt last week in Montpellier and is to return home for treatment.
Cilic, who served a three-month ban for a technical anti-doping infraction last season after he inadvertently ingested a banned substance through the use of over-the-counter glucose tablets, currently stands 37th, but is making steady progress in his return.
“At the start of the season, I though it might go quicker,” said Cilic, now coached by former Croatian star Goran Ivanisevic. “But my game has been a bit up and down, oscillating.”
“I’ve still not played a lot of matches,” said the player, who returned to the ATP in November at Paris Bercy. “I’m still not used to some match situations, some balls come differently than in training, but I’m getting back in the groove now and playing much better ... that [his absence] is all behind me now.”
Cilic, with 10 ATP titles, never lost control against the 50th-ranked Czech Rosol, with the winner sending down a modest eight aces, but breaking four times in the one-hour victory.
“Overall, I played solidly, I didn’t have too many mistakes. In the first couple of games, I had to get used to conditions. I was finally feeling the ball. I mixed it up well and made him play,” he said. “My serve was also working pretty well, it was a solid match.”
Meanwhile, Czech third seed Tomas Berdych has admitted to gaining confidence about his Grand Slam title chances after watching Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka win the Australian Open.
No. 7 Berdych was himself a semi-final victim of Wawrinka last month in Melbourne, with the Swiss winning the title over Rafael Nadal.
“Stan showed us that it is possible to win a Grand Slam,” said Berdych, who is to meet either Nicolas Mahut or Gilles Simon, both of France, in the second round. “Grand Slams are difficult to win, but Stan showed it’s possible to beat the top guys. If you work hard, then everything can click together and you can make it in the end. It isn’t only the right of two or three guys [Roger Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the so-called Big Four].”
“Stan’s win showed that the top 10 is also extremely tough. I just need to work harder, stay patient and hopefully the results will come,” the 2010 Wimbledon finalist added.
US INDOOR
AFP, MEMPHIS, Tennessee
Cypriot wildcard Marcos Baghdatis, Croatian Ivo Karlovic and Germany’s Benjamin Becker eased to straight-sets victories on Tuesday to book second-round matches with seeded players at the US$647,000 ATP US Indoor Championship in Memphis, Tennessee.
Becker saved all three break points that he faced in beating Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-2 and advanced to a second-round clash with defending champion and top seed Kei Nishikori of Japan.
Nishikori, who like the other top-four seeds received a first-round bye, is defending his Memphis crown after helping Japan beat Canada in the first round of the Davis Cup earlier this month.
Baghdatis, who reached the Australian Open final in 2006, beat US qualifier Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-4 to book a date with Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt.
Baghdatis, ranked 134th in the world, has not won two matches in a row since last year’s US Open, when he lost in the third round to Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, who went on to win the Australian Open last month.
Since then, Baghdatis has lost eight of his past 10 matches, but against Ram he was lethal, firing 10 aces and dispatching his opponent in just 75 minutes.
Karlovic blasted 14 aces to beat Aussie Matthew Ebden 7-5, 6-4 and advance to a second-round meeting with Spanish second seed Feliciano Lopez.
Meanwhile, Kazakh eighth seed Mikhail Kukushkin battled past Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6 (11/9), 7-5.
Kukushkin could face fourth-seed Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan in the quarter-finals.
US sixth seed Sam Querrey squandered 18 aces and a match point in the decisive tie-breaker in losing to Russian Alex Bogomolov, whose 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) triumph after two hours and two minutes gave him to a second-round match with American Ryan Harrison.
The winner of that tiecould face Nishikori in the quarter-finals.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
Playing soccer and competing for trophies is the best way that many transplanted Hong Kongers and Macanese have found to stay in touch, and to interact with Taiwanese society, said officials at the Taiwan-Hong Kong-Macau Football Friendship Cup, which was held on April 13. Twelve clubs, mostly of players and coaches originally from Hong Kong and Macau, took part in the tournament in New Taipei City. The event is sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council. Participating teams were from the wider Taipei area, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas. They divided into two