MONACO (AP) — Ernests Gulbis of Latvia beat 14th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Sunday.
Gulbis, who hit nine aces and broke Dolgopolov’s serve twice in each set, next meets Milos Raonic after the Canadian beat Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-3, 0-6, 6-0.
Elsewhere, there were wins for Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.
The big-serving Ljubicic needed little more than an hour to crush Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 6-2, and Kohlschreiber rallied past Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-4 to line up a match with Roger Federer, seeded second.
Ljubicic next plays either No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France or Argentina’s Juan Monaco.
