• ATP Tour

Cilic on form ahead of London 2012

ESPN staff
July 17, 2012
Marin Cilic is on a hot streak of form © PA Photos
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Several London 2012 hopefuls were in ATP Tour action on Tuesday, as momentum builds towards a return to SW19 in late July.

Croatian Marin Cilic is one man looking in particularly threatening form ahead of the Olympic singles competition, having won the Croatia Open last week. He continued his winning ways in the second round of the German Tennis Championships, beating Flavio Cipolla 6-3 6-4.

Cilic is the fourth seed in Hamburg, and he was joined in the next round by another Olympic hopeful, Juan Monaco. The Argentine was less comfortable in his win against Cedrik Marcel-Stebe, winning 6-4 3-6 7-5.

Top seed Nicolas Almagro was last on court on Tuesday, but he made relatively light work of Tobias Kamke, triumphing 6-4 6-1. Almagro is another to have his eye on Olympic singles glory later this month.

There was a shock exit, however, for Spain's Fernando Verdasco, who was beaten by wildcard Julian Reister. Fifth seed Verdasco failed to create a single break point in a 6-2 6-3 defeat to the German, who was later joined in the next round by compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Elsewhere, at the Atlanta Open, veteran James Blake progressed to the second round at the expense of compatriot Ryan Harrison. Blake overcame a sluggish start to account for the sixth seed 1-6 6-3 7-5, while eighth seed Go Soeda defeated Belgium's Xavier Malisse in three sets.

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