TENNIS in DEPTH.

Marin Cilic (my pick to win it all!)became the first biggest casualty in the men’s draw as he fell to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6(1), 6-0. After failing to serve out the opening set, Cilic managed to win just 13 more points the rest of the match.

It was Cilic’s earliest exit this season, after beginning the year with a circuit-best 18-2 mark. He had defended his titles at Chennai and Zagreb, reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open and quarter-finals in Dubai.

Vera Zvonareva was seeded to meet  Ana Ivanovic in the third round, but saw  Ivanovic lose 6-2, 6-4 to #63 ranked Latvian Anastasija Sevastova. 

Playing her first competitive match in over a month, Ivanovic was badly out of form. She never found her rhythm and made a host of unforced errors almost whenever she went on the offensive. Her serve was similarly poor.Sevastova, who beat world No.9 Jelena Jankovic in Monterrey last week, did an excellent job of capitalising on Ana’s stuttering performance. She broke the 24th seed at the first time of asking and added another break later in the set.

“I felt like I was tracking the ball well, but it was very, very slow,” said Ivanovic. “I miss-hit a lot of the balls. I also thought she couldn’t really hurt me with anything, but I also couldn’t finish the point. So it was kind of frustrating. It was a fight out there. I’m just disappointed I didn’t find the answers. Had a lot of opportunities, I think.”

If Ivanovic continues to lose in tournament after tournament in the first or second round, she might get a call from Adidas asking for their money back!

They are paying for product exposure, and she’s certainly not giving them any.

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Roger Federer has confirmed that he has been given the green light to commence training in anticipation of his return to tennis at this week’s ATP event at Indian Wells. How fit will he be after a long lay-off is anybody’s guess. There still remains the possibility that he might not play.

After a weekend of high drama at the Davis Cup tie in Belgrade, Novak Djokovic cannot be expected to be a factor at Indian Wells. Rafael Nadal is the defending champion, he needs a win to keep his point total and to gain some confidence, but the surface is not his best.

Andy Murray has been experimenting with his game, and the experiment hasn’t worked so far. He should be fresh having only played 27 sets of tennis in 2010, but unless he can bring more aggression into his game he will remain as a runner-up.

Marin Cilic is ready to move into the top group this year, and Indian Wells might be the place where he will shine. He likes the hard surface, the three set matches and the California weather.

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Marin Cilic dropped only his third match of the season Thursday as Austrian Jurgen Melzer upset the Croatian sixth seed 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 for a place in the semi-finals of the Barclays Championships. Cilic still boasts a Tour-best 17 wins since January against a pair of losses. The Croatian with two titles this season stood 4-1 over Melzer coming into their quarter-final on a windswept, hot day in the Gulf.

The victory was a repeat of the emotional Vienna final which hometowner Melzer won over Cilic last October. Cilic’s won their Zagreb semi-final three weeks ago on the way to that trophy.

“When I beat Cilic in Vienna, that was the best day of my tennis life,” said Melzer, advancing on his career-best 26th ranking after his performance this week. “But this comes a close second.

“It’s been a long time since I have beaten a guy in the Top 10. I played a good match after I changed things up when I was trailing 4-1 in the first set.

“I kept it together. I remembered in Vienna that I changed my game so I tried it again. He was better in our first five games so I had to do something.”

Melzer and number nine Cilic both ended with 11 aces and three double-faults.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311255,ecstatic-melzer-ambushes-cilic-for-place-in-dubai-semi-finals.html#ixzz0gYLBEuqv

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Top-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia successfully defended his Zagreb Indoors title by beating Michael Berrer of Germany in three sets on Sunday.

Cilic won 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 in two hours and 38 minutes to claim his second title of the year and the fifth of his career.

The 22-year-old Croatian has been in good form this season, winning in Chennai, India, in January and reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open to break into the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time in his career.

For the first time in this tournament — and last year’s — Cilic lost a set.

After winning all five matches last year in straight sets he was close to repeating the feat this year before Berrer forced a deciding set by taking the second set tiebreak.

Cilic never lost his serve in the final, saving all six break points he faced.

The third and decisive set was decided by a lone break in the fourth game. Cilic served for the match at 5-3, saved two break points and hit his 13th ace to clinch the title.

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Reigning champion and top seed Marin Cilic reached the semi-finals of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors with a hard-fought 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 victory over fellow Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

Cilic, who is currently a career-high number 10 in the world rankings, failed to take advantage of the four break points he managed to force in the first set as it went to a tie-break.

But the 21-year-old, on the back of his semi-final appearance at the Australian Open, came through to take the tie-break 8-6 to go a set up.

He then completed his victory as he claimed the only break of serve in the match to take the second set 6-4.

Fourth seed Viktor Troicki is out of the tournament after he was beaten in straight sets by Germany’s Michael Berrer.

Serbian Troicki reached the semi-finals of this tournament last year but he had lost against Berrer in their two previous meetings.

Berrer claimed the only break of serve to take the opening set 6-4 and, despite securing just one of six break-point opportunities, he went on to take the second set 6-3.

Phillipp Petzschner also advanced, recovering from a set down to beat Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-7 (1/7) 6-2 6-2.

The first set proved to be an even contest but the German proved far too strong after losing the tie-break comprehensively and broke his opponent’s serve at will to clinch victory.

Austrian third seed Jurgen Melzer also needed three sets to reach the last four against Ukraine’s Ilya Marchenko, eventually progressing 3-6 6-0 7-5.

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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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Marin Cilic ran out of gas. The young man from Croatia discovered that winning a Grand Slam event is more than playing great tennis, it is about conserving energy in the early rounds, and saving something for the semi final and final. After too many hours on the court that included 5 set wins over Tomic, Del Potro and Roddick, it was to be expected that Cilic would be exhausted. He expended all of his reserves in the first set winning 6-3, but it was all downhill from then on. Murray elevated his game and slowly ground Cilic down by keeping the ball in play and extending the length of the rallies. He won the next three sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

Murray moves through to the final where he will meet the winner of the Federer Tsonga match, and unless Federer suffers an injury or a complete meltdown, he should win in 3 sets.

Murray is one of the few players who holds a winning record over Federer, but this will be the final of a Grand Slam, and Federer usually finds a little something extra in important matches.

The pressure is clearly on Andy Murray!

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