Second seed Marin Cilic reached the quarter finals at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament after edging past Gilles Muller 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (9-7) in a match without breaks of serve. Cilic hit 8 aces and won 84 percent of his first serve points.
Neither Cilic nor Muller faced a single break point in the opening set. Cilic clinched the tie-break 7-4. In the second set Muller fended off all the five break points he faced. The second set was also decided by a tie-break. The 2014 US Open champion earned two match points at 6-4 in the tie-break. Muller fought back to earn a set point at 7-6 but Cilic saved it to clinch the second set 9-7.
“I was expecting a close match. Luckily I was serving well today and and 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 tough player to play against indoors and I am happy to be through”, said Cilic.
Cilic will take on Phillip Kohlschreiber who beat Ivan Dodig 6-4 6-2. The German player converted four of his five break point chances and won 75 percent of his second serve points.
Roberto Bautista Agut overcame a second-set loss to edge past Joao Sousa 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 6-3. The Spanish player has extended his 2016 record to 13-2 after winning two titles in Auckland and Sofia.
Bautista Agut was the first to break but Sousa broke straight back. The first set came down to the tie-break where the Spaniard prevailed 7-2. Sousa bounced back cruising to a 6-1 win in the second set but Bautista Agut regrouped to clinch the decider 6-3.
Vicktor Troicki, who finished runner-up to Bautista Agut last week in Sofia, came back from a set down to battle past Andrey Kuznetsov 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 in two hours and six minutes.
Jeremy Chardy battled past Evgeny Donskoy 6-7 (9-11) 6-4 7-6 (10-8) in two hours and 23 minutes. The first set went on serve with no break points. Donskoy won a tight tie-break with nine mini-breaks. Chardy converted his second break point chance in the ninth game of the second set. Both players traded breaks at the start of the third set which came down to the tie-break. After nine-breaks Chardy clinched the tie-break 10-8 after saving a match point.
He will face an all-French match against qualifier Nicolas Mahut.
Gilles Simon rallied from 2-5 down in the first set to beat Robin Haase 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 to set up a match against 18-year-old Alexander Zverev who overcame Vasek Pospisil 7-5 6-2.
