Marcos advanced to the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open tennis Championships on Tuesday in Tokyo with a 7-6(3), 7-5 victory over Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Marcos rallied from a break down in the first set to win it on a tie-break before breaking Stakhovsky in the final game of the match to prevail in one hour and 38 minutes. Marcos hit six aces and won 72 per cent of points on first serve.
Victory for Marcos avenged the defeat he suffered against Stakhovsky in the New Haven quarter-finals two years ago. It marked his first win since reaching the second round of the US Open last month. He is bidding to win back-to-back tour-level matches for the first time since advancing to the third round of the London 2012 Olympics, where he fell to eventual gold medallist Andy Murray. He has a 28-21 record on the season.
For a place in the quarter-finals of this ATP World Tour 500 hard-court tournament, Marcos will face either fourth-seeded Argentine Juan Monaco or Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. The pair will contest their first-round match on Wednesday in Tokyo.
Stay tuned to www.baghdatis.com for all the news from Tokyo.
Go, Marcos!
