World No.4 Marin Cilic has confirmed that he will hold discussions with his team on Friday about whether or not to play in next week’s Madrid Open.
The announcement comes after he suffered a shock loss to Malek Jaziri at the Istanbul Open in Turkey. Cilic, who was the top seed and defending champion, crashed out 6-4, 6-2. Hitting five double faults and winning just 32% of the points behind his second serve. Enabling 32-year-old Jaziri to record his second win over a top 10 player this season after Grigor Dimitrov.
“It was my first match and Malek played great,” said Cilic. “I had issues with my knee, so I wasn’t serving that well. But all the credit to Malek. I tried to play aggressively and I didn’t want to slow the pace down or be defensive.”
After losing his opening match in a tournament for the first time this year. The former US Open champion has admitted that he ‘had limitations’ with his movement. Despite managing to complete the match, alarm bells are ringing for Cilic and his team.
“On some jumps (during the match) I felt just a little bit of pain and that blocked me.” He explained. “Also, if I had to do some movements (on the court) it was limiting me.”
“I was practicing as good as I could these last few days.”
As a result of his knee problems, doubts have been raised about his attendance at next week’s Masters 1000 event. Cilic would be seeded third in the draw behind Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev. He is yet to reach the quarter-final stage of the Madrid Open, which is held at the Caja Magica.
“I will see how it goes tomorrow (Friday) morning and then I might even decide to skip Madrid.” Cilic revealed. “Just to have a little bit extra time to recover.” He added.
Despite the setback, the Croat is refusing to let it hamper his momentum. Prior to Istanbul, he has won 15 out 21 matches on the ATP Tour this year. At the Australian Open he reached his third major final before losing to Roger Federer in five sets. More recently, he reached the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Open before going out to Kei Nishikori.
“The situation isn’t so bad. I’m still feeling good.” He evaluated. “I just feel that I need a couple extra days to get some good training, good recovery and I believe I will be at a good level.”
During the clay swing, Cilic has a total of 980 points to defend on the tour.
