TENNIS in DEPTH.

Home favourite and top seed Marin Cilic wasted little time in advancing to the second round of the ATP PBZ Zagreb Indoors today.

Cilic, who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open last week, cruised to a 6-2 6-2 victory over Czech Republic’s Jan Hajek in the Croatian capital.

Second seed Ivan Ljubicic, also of Croatia, was another to enjoy a smooth passage from round one with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 triumph over Frenchman Arnaud Clement.

In Wednesday’s other first-round clash, seventh seed Antonio Veic was forced to retire hurt when leading fellow Croatian Ivo Karlovic 5-4 in the first set.

In second-round action, there were straight-sets wins for third-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer, fourth-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki and unseeded Ukrainian Illya Marchenko over Belgium’s Olivier Rochus, Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin and Croatia’s Ivan Dodig respectively.

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Third-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia won his first title in more than two years by beating Michael Llodra of France 7-5, 6-3 in Sunday’s Lyon Grand Prix final.

The 30-year-old Ljubicic’s previous title came at the Ordina Open in June 2007.

Ljubicic, who won the first of his nine ATP titles in Lyon in 2001, served seven aces and broke his French opponent three times on his way to winning in 1 hour, 36 minutes.

Jurgen Melzer defeated top-seeded Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday to win the Bank Austria Tennis Trophy, his second career ATP title.

The 35th-ranked Melzer, seeded seventh, saved five break points to hold serve throughout. He broke Cilic three times in the final.

“I can’t find the right words to describe my emotions,” said Melzer, who became only the second Austrian winner in the 35-year history of the event after Horst Skoff in 1988.

Ukrainian qualifier Andriy Stakhovsky won his second career title Sunday, saving a match point before beating eighth-seeded Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 2-6, 7-6 (8), 7-6 (7) in the St. Petersburg Open.

The 93rd-ranked Stakhovsky won his first title last year in Zagreb, Croatia.

He is the third qualifier to win a tournament this year. The others are Benjamin Becker of Germany at the Ordina Open in June, and Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in July at the Allianz Suisse Open in Gstaad, Switzerland

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Ivan Ljubicic ensured there will not be an all-French final at the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon after romping to a 6-2 6-4 win over Arnaud Clement. He will face  Michael Llodra who overcame Gilles Simon.

Croatian Ljubicic has been in exceptional form, facing only two break points in the whole tournament. He kept up that record as he served six aces and broke twice in a one-sided first set and, though the second was much more closely contested, he had enough in reserve to set up a meeting with Llodra.

The three sets in the later clash yielded just one break of serve as Simon, the second-seeded world number 12, also failed to force even a solitary break point.

He did manage to win the opening set, taking a tie-break 7-4, but Llodra hit back to level the match at 1-1.

And the unseeded wildcard hit 11 of his 24 aces in a final set which ended in a one-sided tie-break, Llodra wrapping up a 6-7 (4/7) 6-3 7-6 (7/1) win.

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Ivan Ljubicic was forced to retire after the second set with his match against Rafeal Nadal, adding his name to endless list of injured players. A confused Nadal, looking far from a former #1 player and the highest seed in the tournamnet, had no answer to the attack of Ljubicic. If only the classy Croatian could play at this level for a few months or even one tournament. He possesses the best one-handed backhand stroke of any player past or present, and a service that comes from out of nowhere with such pace that Nadal found himself standing 12 feet behind the baseline just to get his racquet on the ball. The score will go down as a 3-6, 6-3 win for Nadal, but the score does not tell the full story.

Novak Djokovic was forced to draw on his big-match experience to withstand the spirited challenge of Gilles Simon, defeating the Frenchman 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 Friday to secure his place in the semi-finals of the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 Presented by Rolex, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

Djokovic had met with an equally resilient Simon in the semi-finals of Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai last year and next will face the man he defeated in the final of the 2008 season finale, Nikolay Davydenko.

“I hope I will repeat the same success I had at Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai last year against him,” said Djokovic, looking ahead to the clash with Davydenko. “It’s kind of a deja vu, playing with Simon [in the] semis and him in the finals. [He's had] so many years on the tour, Nikolay, and [is a] very aggressive player and takes the ball very early. So I will have to have good tactics tomorrow and just be ready for aggression from the other side of the net and hope I will have patience and I’ll be wise enough to win.”

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