5th seed and 2014 US Open champion got his campaign to win a second title in Flushing Meadows underway with a 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over American Tennys Sandgren.
Cilic, who had not played since being thrashed by Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final, showed signs of sluggishness in his opener, yet had enough to beat the World No. 105.
Cilic broke five times in the four-set win, but what will be more of a concern is the fact that Sandgren managed to break the Croat’s serve three times. Sandgren has few weapons that could cause Cilic trouble yet the Wimbledon struggled at times particularly in the third and fourth sets.
Cilic sealed a late break with Sandgren serving in the eighth game of the fourth set and served out the unconvincing win. Cilic has negotiated one of the most awkward rounds in a grand slam, particularly after such a long time out. He will have to improve though in the second round if he wants to figure as a legitimate contender for the title.
Cilic will face Florian Mayer in the second round. The German overcame a disastrous second set to defeat Brazil’s Rogerio Dutra Silva 7-5, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4. Cilic and Mayer met as recently as the second round of Wimbledon, with Cilic a straight sets winner on that occasion.
One seed who failed to advance to the second round was Spanish veteran David Ferrer. The 21st seed had had a good spell of form recently, with a semi-final at the Cincinnati Masters, and had hoped for a good run after the draw opened up following the withdrawal of Andy Murray. However, Ferrer was ousted by Mikhail Kukushkin 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.
8th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has a lot of points to defend having made the quarter-finals last year. The Frenchman was patient enough to wait through the stern resistance of Marius Copil in the third set to win 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.
