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Cilic powers past Stakhovsky in four sets – Metro US

Cilic powers past Stakhovsky in four sets

Cilic powers past Stakhovsky in four sets
Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Ninth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic unleashed 22 aces and 62 winners in his second-round win at Wimbledon on Thursday, bundling out unseeded Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2 6-7(6) 6-4 6-4 in just under three hours of hard-hitting tennis.

Cilic, who won the 2014 U.S. Open and equaled his best All England Club result last year by reaching the quarter-finals, sailed through the first set with two breaks of serve.

The 94th-ranked Ukrainian took the second set on a tiebreak when Cilic’s radar went awry in two consecutive baseline rallies.

But the Croatian, who lost in three sets to world number two Andy Murray in the semi-final of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s Club, was relatively untroubled thereafter, sealing victory with a service game to love.

Cilic next plays 120th-ranked Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko who tamed big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic.

(Reporting by John Stonestreet; editing by Martyn Herman)