ATP Pune: Anderson edges Djere, Gulbis tops Chung. Simon and Karlovic win
The world no. 100 and the oldest ranked player in the world Ivo Karlovic is through to his first ATP quarter-final since Houston last year, defeating Evgeny Donskoy 6-4, 7-5 in an hour and 12 minutes, becoming the oldest ATP quarter-finalist since Jimmy Connors in 1995! Just like against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the opening round, Ivo delivered fury from his initial shot to dominate in his service games, keeping the pressure on the Russian and breaking him once in each set to hit the last eight. Serving at 71%, the Croatian veteran landed 17 aces and he lost seven points in his games, keeping Donskoy far from any chance in the return games and converting two out of four break points to cross the finish line in style.
As always, Ivo hit all-or-nothing returns on Evgeny's second serve and that paid dividends, stealing the Russian's game in the third game of the opening set and at 5-5 in set number two before closing the match with a hold at 30 in the next game for another impressive win and the clash against Ernests Gulbis. The Latvian ousted the 2nd seed Hyeon Chung 7-6, 6-2 in an hour and 38 minutes, losing serve three times but delivering some impressive numbers on the return to steal half of the points on the Korean's serve to secure five breaks from eight chances he created.
It was a poor performance from Chung despite the fact he opened a 4-0 lead at the start of the match, making too many errors and losing the last five games of the match to send Ernests into the last eight. Trailing 5-1 in the first set, the Latvian started to climb back, leveling the score at 5-5 before Hyeon broke again to serve for the set for the third time. Once again, he failed to deliver a good hold and Gulbis won the tie break 7-2 for a huge steal. After four good holds at the start of the second set, Gulbis seized the control with breaks in games five and seven before he closed the match with a good hold at 5-2.
The top seed and the last year's finalist Kevin Anderson had to work hard in the opening match of the season, prevailing against Laslo Djere 7-6, 7-6 in two hours and eight minutes to avoid the further struggle and the possible third set. Anderson fired 20 aces and he got broken only once from two chances he gave to Djere who managed to stay in touch with the top-10 rival after fending off six out of seven break points, wasting a set point in the 12th game of the second set and being two points away from the set in the tie break as well.
It as a great start for the South African, breaking in the fourth game before wasting a 40-15 lead in game six, dropping four straight points to suffer a break when his backhand landed long. The Serb saved three break points in the following game to stay on the positive side of the scoreboard and he fought well until the tie break that Kevin won 7-3 after a poor volley from Laslo. The Serb saved all three break points in the second set and he could have grabbed the set in the 12th game when he created a break point, denied by Anderson's volley winner to set another tie break. This one was much closer and Kevin won it 8-6 after a service winner.
Second round results:
[1]Kevin Anderson (RSA) vs Laslo Djere (SRB) 7-6(3) 7-6(6) [7]Jaume Munar (ESP) vs [Q]Simone Bolelli (ITA) 7-5 6-0 [3]Gilles Simon (FRA) vs vs Ilya Ivashka (BLR) 6-7(3) 6-2 6-1 [5]Benoit Paire (FRA) vs Jiri Vesely (CZE) 6-4 6-2 Steve Darcis (BEL) vs Michael Mmoh (USA) 4-6 7-6(4) 6-2 Ivo Karlovic (CRO) vs Evgeny Donskoy (RUS) 6-4 7-5 Ernests Gulbis (LAT) vs [2]Hyeon Chung (KOR) 7-6(2) 6-2
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2s4RhAX
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