Cilic edges through

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:11

The Croatian dug deep to save four break points in the opening set while his opponent was unable to do the same on the only one he faced as Cilic took the upper hand.

The second set was an equally close affair with the 20-year-old taking advantage of one of two break opportunities to see off Martin in just over an hour and a half on centre court.

Fifth seed Rainer Schuettler was pushed to three sets by wildcard Prakash Amritraj. After taking the first 6-2, Schuettler was pegged back by the Indian player 6-4 in the next.

But the German comfortably closed out the match, outclassing his opponent 6-1 in the decider.

In other matches, Israel’s Dudi Sela came from a set down to defeat Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hildago 4-6 7-6 (7/3) 6-1, while wildcard Lucas Dlouhny did the same as the Czech prevailed 3-6 6-2 6-4 over Japan’s Go Soeda.

German Bjorn Phau beat Santiago Ventura from Spain 6-2 7-5 and Simon Gruel, also from Germany, saw off Spaniard Daniel Gimeno Traver 6-3 6-4.

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