One day after his disappointing first-round singles exit, Marcos teamed with Ivan Ljubicic for the first time to make a winning start in his doubles campaign at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and earn valuable match practice ahead of the French Open.
The Cypriot-Croatian duo held their nerve in a deciding match tie-break to defeat French pairing Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 2-6, 10-3 in 62 minutes. Victory also earned Marcos a degree of revenge for his defeat to Tsonga in the singles on Monday.
In the second round of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournament, Marcos and Ljubicic will face a stern test in sixth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach, who reached the semi-finals in Rome last year.
