Bautista Agut Keeps Up Winning Form In Rotterdam

Roberto Bautista Agut kept up his strong early season form in Rotterdam on Wednesday as he reached the second round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament with a 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-3 victory over Joao Sousa.

The Spaniard has a 13-2 mark in his best start to an ATP World Tour campaign, with two titles already in Auckland (d. Sock) and last week in Sofia (d. Troicki). He goes on to face Jiri Vesely for a quarter-final spot.

Philipp Kohlschreiber was the first player through to the quarter-finals as he defeated qualifier Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-2 in 70 minutes. The German also reached the quarter-finals last week in Sofia (l. to Troicki) and goes on to challenge second seed Marin Cilic.

Cilic, the 2014 finalist, held his nerve to beat fellow big-server Gilles Muller 7-6(2), 7-6(7). There were no breaks of serve in the two-hour encounter.

“I was expecting a close match,” said Cilic. “Luckily I was serving well today and I was mentally focused. I was close to breaking a few times in the second set and put pressure on his serve. Gilles is a very difficult player to play against indoors and I’m happy to be through.”

Eighth seed Viktor Troicki celebrated his 30th birthday by striking 14 aces in a 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 victory over qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov in two hours and six minutes. He now plays teenager Hyeon Chung.

Elsewhere, Jeremy Chardy battled his way past lucky loser Evgeny Donskoy, a replacement for Richard Gasquet, by saving one match point at 7/8 in the third set tie-break to win 6-7(9), 6-4, 7-6(8) over two hours and 23 minutes. He’ll next meet fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, a qualifier.