Photo: Ray Giubilo
Marcos and Ivan Ljubicic put up spirited resistance, but were beaten in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia 7-6(7), 6-4 by sixth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach on Thursday in Rome.
The Cypriot-Croatian pairing rallied from 3-5 down in the first set to force a tie-break, but were edged out 9-7 as their experienced opponents took a one-set lead. Poland’s Kubot and Marach of Austrian then broke serve midway through the second set and went on to close out victory in one hour and 53 minutes.
Defeat brings to an end Marcos’ campaign in Rome. He will now have a few days to practise before competing at the Open de Nice Côte d’Azur, an ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament which begins on Sunday.
David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, Nicolas Almagro, Andy Roddick and Alexandr Dolgopolov will also be in action in a bid to secure some last-minute practice before the French Open.
