-Washington DC
On paper it looked to be an entertaining matchup between a former Grand Slam winner and one of the games hot young stars on Thursday afternoon at the Citi Open. However, what looked good at the start didn’t turn out so well at the finish.
No. 6 seed Marin Cilic didn’t play his best tennis but it was enough to defeat the No. 9 seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 26 minutes to move into the Quarter-Finals in Washington.
“Probably one of the worst matches I played this year,” said a dejected 18-year old afterwards. Hard to disagree after the teenager had amassed 29 wins in his first full season on tour including three Finals appearances.
On another humid day in the Nation’s Capital, Auger-Aliassime really struggled with his serve. He did have ten aces but also threw in 11 double faults as well and was broken three times. Of his 26 unforced errors, 12 came on the backhand side.
The Canadian struggled from the start falling 4-1 down early on in the opening set. He did manage to break Cilic at Love in the following game with a couple of very impressive passing shots, one each from either wide of the baseline.
But in the ninth game a perfect Cilic lob gave the Croatian triple set point on the Auger-Aliassime serve and he then followed that up with a backhand crosscourt ripper to take the set.
In the second, Auger-Aliassime now ranked 22nd in the World, had two chances to break early on but Cilic’s big serve got him out of trouble on a couple of occasions. After an outstanding one handed backhand passing shot by the youngster, which had the crowd on their feet, Cilic quieted them quickly with successive aces to hold serve.
Auger-Aliassime had another chance with the score tied 4-4 but a backhand return went long on his fourth break chance of the match. Two big serves then from Cilic gave him a 5-4 lead.
In the next game Auger-Aliassime, playing just his second career match in Washington, struggled on serve yet again. After a backhand into the net, it was fitting that the young Canadian served up his final double fault on match point.
Cilic has now reached the Final eight in Washington for the third time. He will face third seed and World. No 10 Daniil Medvedev on Friday. It will be the first meeting between the two players.
NOTE:
Eighth seed and 2014 Washington champion Milos Raonic lost his Third Round match exactly 14 seconds after the conclusion of his fellow Canadian, Auger-Aliassme’s match. Raonic, who needed a medical timeout to get treatment on his back in the second set fell 6-4, 6-4 to Lucky Loser Peter Gojowczyk on the adjacent John Harris Court.
@Sportshorn
