Marcos is through to the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup after producing a solid serving display to beat talented Ukrainian, Alexandr Dolgopolov, 6-2, 7-6(7) on Friday in Moscow.
Victory for Marcos avenged the straight-sets defeat he suffered to World No. 56 Dolgopolov two weeks ago in the Beijing first round. He is now through to his sixth ATP World Tour semi-final of the season and will bid to reach his 10th career tour-level final when he faces Denis Istomin on Saturday at the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament.
Marcos made a fast start to Friday’s quarter-final, breaking in the third game with a testing forehand crosscourt pass to force an error from Dolgopolov. He then played a great returning game to break again for 5-2, before an easy service hold clinched the first set.
Marcos created the only three break point chances of the second set, but Dolgopolov fought off the danger each time to force a deciding tie-break. The Ukrainian had his chances to extend the match to three sets, holding three set points at 6-4 and 7-6, but Marcos held strong before converting his first match point after 82 minutes.
Marcos was impressive on serve throughout, not facing a break point and winning 84 per cent of the points behind his first serve.
“I lost to (Dolgopolov) in Beijing after leading in the first set and in the second set. I took my chances this time and I was a bit lucky in the tie-break,” assessed Marcos.
He will face Istomin for the first time on the ATP World Tour, although he did prevail when the two met in the final of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Tashkent last year. The Uzbekistani player cruised through his quarter-final match with Igor Kunitsyn to reach his first quarter-final since finishing runner-up in New Haven in August.
“I am the favourite now but I need to be focused and just worry about my next match,” said Marcos, who is the only seeded player remaining in contention. “Denis is tough; I played him once last year.”
The match is scheduled to take place on centre court beginning not before 6:00 pm local time (3pm UK, 5pm Cyprus, 10am ET) Saturday. Check out the full order of play here.
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Go, Marcos!
