Marin Cilic ousts Jurgen Melzer to progress to Olympic second round

Croatia's Marin Cilic defeated Jurgen Melzer of Austria in straight sets this afternoon to advance to the second round of the men's Olympic singles.

After an even opening three games on serve, Cilic moved ahead in the opener by breaking at the first time of asking in the fourth.

The Croat had the chance of serving out the set at 5-4 but threw away three set points as Melzer broke back.

Soon the pair were in a tie-break and Cilic again earned multiple set points, four this time. He squandered the first three but took the fourth to grab the first set.

The 13th seed seemed to take momentum from this and broke in the opening game of the second.

He then saved a break point at 2-1 before creating a four-game advantage at 5-1 with a second break in the set.

Melzer saved a match point on his own serve but could do little to stop Cilic, who held in the next to wrap up victory in 98 minutes.

Cilic will take on either Australia's Lleyton Hewitt or Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine in round three at Wimbledon, while Melzer is still in the doubles with Alexander Peya.