LONDON: Top seed Marin Cilic avoided a shock loss by fighting back to defeat Gilles Muller 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round of The Fever-Tree Championships.
Cilic, who won the tournament back in 2012, was tested from the onset by the blistering serve of his opponent. Muller’s first round victory over Denis Shapovalov saw him win 96% of the points behind his first serve. Cilic avoided the same fate as his Canadian rival by wearing down the 35-year-old. Hitting 19 aces and saving three of the four break points he faced.
“It was definitely not easy. But I upped my serve a little bit from the beginning of the second set. I didn’t give him (Muller) many chances on the return, and that just pushed me to stay in the match and to put back pressure on him.” Cilic said after the match.
“I was quite solid. I’m really happy with the way I pulled it back from one set down.” He added.
In what was a match of fine margins, a single break decided the outcome of the first set. Cillic’s two failed chances to break in the second game cost him dearly as the underdog took advantage. Muller, who was bidding to reach the last eight at Queen’s for the fourth consecutive year, held on to snatch the 6-4 lead.
Despite the scare, Cilic managed to fight back as the expense of his rival. A dip in Muller’s form on the court enabled the top seed to establish his dominance in the match. Upping his intensity during rallies, Cilic snatched the second set with ease. Forcing a series of errors from his rival as he grabbed a 4-2 lead before taking the second set with the help of a serve down the line that was returned out.
Continuing to weather the storm, a clean forehand winner rewarded the 29-year-old an early break in the decider. Nearing towards a place in the last eight of the tournament, Cilic broke once more with a backhand cross-court winner to secure the match after 104 minutes of play.
As a result of his latest win, the Croat has extended his winning head-to-head record against Muller to 4-0. It is the seventh time in his career that he has reached the quarter-finals of Queen’s. Overall, he has a win-loss record of 30-9 at the tournament.
” I’ve been coming here (to Queen’s) since 2007, every single year, and I’m enjoying it. I had great success even though the tournament is extremely strong every single year.” He said.
“It’s always a pleasure for me to play here. I think it’s very special as every single match has a full crowd, so it makes it even more interesting.”
Cilic will next take on Sam Querrey, who defeated Stan Wawrinka in straight sets.
“Both of us obviously can play high quality tennis. Usually we do, especially this time of the year on grass.” He said of Querrey.
“Both of us are great players, great hitters off the ball, serving big. And there is not much that differentiates us.”
In their head-to-head, Cilic leads his American rival 5-0.
