Marin Cilic moved into his fourth consecutive Round of 16 at Wimbledon with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 win over an emotional Steve Johnson on Court One.
Both men started with comfortable holds before Cilic began a steady pattern of pressure on the Johnson serve. Johnson saved five break points but failed at the sixth attempt at 4-5, the break sealing the set for the Croatian.
Johnson appeared to hurt his right hand after a full length dive and slide that saw him collide with his chair. A brief visit from a trainer attended to the small finger on Johnson’s right hand during sets one and two, but the American appeared to be fine.
Cilic took an early break of serve off a Johnson double-fault in the second. Johnson fought well to break back as Cilic served for the set. The tall Crotian had volleyed almost impeccably to that point, but missed two shots to hand the break back. Johnson survived set points to take the set to the tiebreak, but and early double fault handed the initiative to the higher seed. Cilic took the set when Johnson found a return too hot to handle.
Johnson took an early lead in the third, but a pair of double faults saw Cilic break back. Cilic found another break before it all became a little too much for Johnson. The American broke down in a change of ends. His father had passed away unexpectedly at the age of 58 in May. Steve Snr had introduced Steve Jnr to tennis, and even acted as his son’s coach on the tour for a period.
Cilic: “Really good match he also played quite well he came back and it was definitely to close out that second set. I managed to raise my game a little bit. I played well in the end. I was focused on myself absolutely. I saw at the end that he was extremely emotional. I am very sorry for his loss, he is one of the nicest guys on the tour. I am serving really good. Today I had a lot of free points on my serve. The matches are going to get tougher and tougher. I think very dangerous he is not the classic Spanish players on the tour. I have to get ready as good as I can.”
Cilic will face Roberto Bautista Agut in the fourth round after the Spaniard shocked the 9th seed Kei Nishikori in four sets.
