“I am satisfied with my game in this match,” Cilic said. “In the first match you just get the feel of the game. From the back of the court I felt I could have played better. Donskoy surprised me today because I (had) never played against him before.”
Ivo Karlovic, who played three tiebreakers against Federico Delbonis at the Erste Bank Open on Tuesday without a single break point to be had in the entire match, added one more to his long list of ‘breakers. The 6’11” Croat earned a place in the quarterfinals by fighting past Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 7-6(1). Karlovic actually had to save break points this time (three to be exact), but he still held all 11 of his service games while blasting 21 aces.Philipp Kohlschreiber also faced a tough test but survived, overcoming Carlos Berlocq 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. In first-round action, meanwhile, Tobias Kamke set up a date with No. 1 seed David Ferrer by defeating Simone Bolelli 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Lukas Rosol opened with a 6-2, 6-4 rout of Lukas Lacko and Sergiy Stakhovsky held off qualifier Miloslav Mecir 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
With new coach Xavier Malisse guiding him at least through the end of this season, Bernard Tomic booked a spot in the If Stockholm Open quarterfinals by upsetting No. 3 seed Kevin Anderson on Wednesday. Tomic is joined in the last eight by Grigor Dimitrov and Fernando Verdasco, respective straight-set winners over Teymuraz Gabashvili and Jarkko Nieminen.
The Tomic-Malisse partnership got off to a somewhat inauspicious start–albeit in a win–on Monday when the Australian earned a harder-than-expected 7-6(1), 5-7, 6-4 victory over Swedish wild card Patrick Rosenholm. Tomic turned in a much more convincing effort against Anderson as he ousted the world No. 17 7-6(4), 6-4. Ranked 76th but defending only 35 points the rest of the season, Tomic held all 11 of his service games and did not double-fault a single time while prevailing in one hour and 24 minutes.
Next up for Tomic is Verdasco, who took care of Nieminen 6-3, 6-4. Dimitrov became the third player through to the last eight by dismissing Gabashvili 7-5, 7-6(4) despite giving back a service break in each of the two sets. First-round winners included Jack Sock and Dustin Brown. Sock beat Andrey Golubev 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 and Brown earned a shot at top-seeded Tomas Berdych by getting the best of Christian Lindell 6-4, 7-6(3).
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