Monaco: Ninth-seeded Marin Cilic overcame a shaky serving performance to beat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-2 in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday. Cilic looked set for an easier win after converting all three of his break points in the first set, before both players dropped serve three times in the second set. Cilic stepped it up in the third, hitting three aces and breaking Zeballos' serve twice.
He next plays either Jerzy Janowicz of Poland or South African Kevin Anderson in the second round. They play their match on Tuesday. Earlier, 12th-seeded Milos Raonic beat Julien Benneteau 6-1, 6-4 and Roberto Bautista Agut upset No. 11 Gilles Simon of France 6-3, 7-6 (6). Raonic served 15 aces and broke his French opponent three times to set up a match against Jarkko Nieminen, who thrashed Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-2.
"A lot of things I did well, especially only having a limited amount of preparation before here," said the 22-year-old Raonic, who improved to 14-4 this season, and hit one booming second serve ace clocked at 201 kilometers-per-hour (124.6 miles-per-hour).
Raonic lost his only match against Nieminen in the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open in Bangkok last September....
more
08:52 AM, Apr 16, 2013
The best-of-five series will be played April 5-7 in Buenos Aires. ...
07:38 AM, Mar 27, 2013
The 2009 US Open winner won 7-6 (2), 6-3. Benneteau, who beat No. 2-ranked Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, is now 0-8 in ATP finals. ...
09:30 PM, Feb 17, 2013
Anderson beat Benneteau 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8) to reach the final of the Sydney International. ...
01:05 PM, Jan 11, 2013
Paris: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the third round of the Paris Masters with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2) win over Julien Benneteau on Tuesday. The 2008 champion was forced into a final-set tiebreaker after failing to serve out the match. Benneteau only converted three of his 11 break-point chances against the hard-serving Tsonga, who hit a total of 15 aces " five in each set. Novak Djokovic is among the favorites...
09:20 AM, Oct 31, 2012
Paris: Julien Benneteau was among three French winners in the opening round of the Paris Masters on Monday, downing Victor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 7-5 to set up a match against countryman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Benneteau broke twice in each set despite Troicki serving 14 aces. The other local winners were Gilles Simon and Benoit Paire. Simon beat 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-5, 6-1, and Paire defeated...
10:00 AM, Oct 30, 2012
Kuala Lampur: Argentine Juan Monaco battled for more than three hours to defeat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-5 4-6 6-3 in the Malaysian Open final on Sunday for his fourth ATP title of the year. Monaco, ranked 11th in the world, kept alive his hopes of qualifying for November's season-ending World Tour finals in London as one of the top eight ranked players. "I celebrated with my team in the locker...
09:34 PM, Sep 30, 2012
Wimbledon: Top-seeded Roger Federer made only a brief appearance on Centre Court, beating Julien Benneteau of France 6-2, 6-2 in less than an hour on Monday to reach the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament. Routine wins have been elusive at the Olympics for Federer, who is playing in the games for the fourth time and still seeking his first singles medal. He was pushed to three sets in...
08:49 PM, Jul 30, 2012
Wimbledon: Roger Federer overcame a two-set deficit on Friday at Wimbledon to avoid his earliest Grand Slam exit since 2004. The six-time champion found himself two points from defeat on six occasions but survived a tense fourth-set tiebreaker and beat Julien Benneteau in the third round, 4-6, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-1. "It was a tough match," Federer said. "Oh my God, it was brutal. Obviously, a bit of...
08:01 AM, Jun 30, 2012
Federer slumped to a surprise 3-6 7-6 6-4 defeat by Benneteau. ...
01:04 PM, Nov 12, 2009
