Defending Men’s Singles Champion Marin Cilic continued his bid for an unlikely repeat title with a routine 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 win over Evgeny Donskoy.
Cilic overcame a slow opening service game to break and lead three-one, securing the lead with a cross-court backhand winner. He then broke Donskoy again to take the first set comfortably by six games to four. Cilic dominated his opponent in the first set, winning seven of the eight points on the Russian’s second serve. He will however, have to raise his own game, as he managed to put just forty-six percent of his first serves in play. Not a level that he will aspire to reproduce, nor one that better opponents will allow him to escape with.
Cilic improved in the second set, though he broke serve just the once, he negated any attacking pretensions from Donskoy by denying him a single break point in the set, hitting seven aces and double faulting just once.
Cilic again took an early lead in the third set, and it looked like he would progress without having his serve broken. Donskoy had other ideas though, showing some character to break for three-all. He then held his serve as they neared a tiebreak. Cilic though, finally broke at five-all, and served for the match. Donskoy put up a fight, forcing the Croat to deuce, but Cilic blasted two massive serves to seal his passage into the third round.
Fans of fate will note that Cilic also recorded a straight sets win over a qualifier in his title run last year.
Cilic will now face the winner of the tie between Mikhail Kukushkin and seventeenth seed, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
David Ferrer continued his progression to a fourth round matchup with Cilic, as he dismissed Filip Krajinovic 7-5,7-5,7-6. He faces Jeremy Chardy next. David Goffin escaped a tight encounter with Ricardas Berankis, eventually winning 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
