Photo: Wr. Stadthalle/Bildagentur Zolles
Marcos made a strong start to his campaign at the Bank Austria TennisTrophy Thursday, finishing strongly to defeat Germany’s Bjorn Phau, 7-5, 6-2, and reach the quarter-finals of the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tournament in Vienna.
From 5-5 in the first set, Marcos stepped up a gear to reel off six straight games, clinching a one-set advantage and surging into a 4-0 lead in the second set with some superb forehand play. He then went on to seal victory in 73 minutes.
“It’s a great winning start,” said Marcos. “It was tough today in the first set, but I played pretty good so I’m happy I won. For sure it was helpful to have a few days off after reaching the Moscow final, but perhaps I came a little bit too earlier to Vienna; I came on Sunday night. There are not a lot of courts for practice here, so the preparation was not perfect, but I’m happy I won today and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s match.”
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In the quarter-finals Marcos will take a 2-0 career lead into his third meeting with World No. 53 Michael Berrer, who earlier defeated Pablo Cuevas 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. He defeated the German most recently in straight sets in the Dubai quarter-finals. Marcos is bidding to reach his seventh ATP World Tour semi-final of the season.
“For sure it will be a hard match,” previewed Marcos. “Michael is playing good tennis, especially indoors on fast courts. But it’s another match, it’s another day, I’ll try to do my best and try to find the solution on court.”
The match is scheduled for fourth on centre court on Friday. The third quarter-final, Jurgen Melzer against Philipp Kohlschreiber, is due to begin not before 5:00 pm local time (6:00 pm Cyprus, 4:00 pm UK), with Marcos vs. Berrer to follow. Check out the full order of play here.
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Go, Marcos!
