Top seed Marin Cilic has got his Rio Open campaign underway with a 6-3, 6-2, win over Carlos Berlocq on Monday.
The Croatian, who is playing in his first tournament since the Australian Open, dropped just three points being his first serve and broke his opponent three times. Clinching the win in exactly 80 minutes. Despite the straightforward victory, Cilic believes that there is more to come from him on the court.
“I’m feeling good. It was an okay match. It was a solid match, first one on clay,” Cilic told atpworldtour.com. “I wouldn’t say that I played really, really well. I felt that I played well. In the critical moments I think I played my own game, very offensive and overall I think I controlled the match quite okay.”
This week the former US Open champion is bidding to win his third tour title on the clay and his first since May. In the next round he will face either France’s Gael Monfils or Horacio Zeballos. A win would move the Croat into the quarter-final of a tournament for a seventh consecutive time. Illustrating the consistency of the world No.3. The last time Cilic failed to reach the last eight was at the US Open.
“I just have to keep focusing on myself just to try to get day after day a little bit better and better, even tomorrow (Tuesday) in practice,” Cilic said. “Just do a couple things from the match today that I’d like to do and focus on the next one.”
One player aiming to deny Cilic the Rio title will be second seed Dominic Thiem. The Austrian is the defending champion and recently won his 9th ATP title at the Argentina Open. Speaking about his chances, Thiem has insisted that is not feeling the pressure of being the defending champion.
“I do not feel pressured, although I have points to defend from the title of last year. I was in Buenos Aires, I’m confident, and nothing better than arriving here after to win a title.” He told rioopen.com.
“I like to come here, I played well in the last two years (he was also a semifinalist in 2016), my game fits the tournament conditions, and I do not care about the heat.”
Thiem will get his bid underway against Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic on Tuesday.
