Paris Masters champion Jack Sock will square-off against Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic in what will be a duel of massive serves and huge forehands at the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Tuesday. Will Cilic be able to overcome the challenge of an opponent who has been gaining in confidence with each passing day or will it be Sock who will taste his first ever win in the history of the tournament?
Jack Sock played like a man who is supremely confident on Sunday when he took on 19-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer in what was his tournament debut. The American stayed tantalizingly close to the Swiss master throughout the contest before some untimely mistakes cost him dearly and handed Federer a 6-4, 7-6 win in just over an hour and a half.
However, Sock’s performance on the day wouldn’t have dented his morale. In fact, it would have risen because he must have thought that if he could challenge the great Federer, then staying with Cilic shouldn’t be a problem for him. Still, Sock will need his A-game to fire to have any chance whatsoever against the Croatian as Cilic’s serve, especially his first serve is extremely hard to break.
Another problem area for the American would be to figure out a way to deal with the monster Cilic forehand because anything hit around it generally comes back with brute force and enormous depth. The best Sock could do is to avoid Cilic’s forehand altogether and should focus on breaking down his backhand which isn’t all that solid.
Meanwhile, Cilic would have his own plans to counter Sock’s strategy and would surely love to dictate the pattern of play with his famous one-two punch. He, too, like Sock is coming into the match after suffering a defeat in his opening encounter against rising German star Alexander Zverev and another loss will almost kill his chances for making it through to the semis.
Cilic, who looked in control of the match after clawing his way back into the contest by winning the second set and by breaking Zverev in the decider before he went completely off the boil. His mounting errors allowed the 20-year-old to win five of the last six games of the match and hand Cilic his sixth loss in seven matches in the history of the event.
Head-to-head: Cilic has lost both his previous matches against Sock – losing in a thrilling five-set encounter in Davis Cup in 2016 and going down in the following contest in straight sets at the US Open the same year. This match could have a similar result as well as Sock is looking the more confident of the two players while Cilic is yet to overcome the tragedy of that famous Wimbledon loss at the hands of Federer.