MONTREAL – Playing Tuesday at the National Bank Open his first game since the semi-final of the Queen’s tournament in mid-June, Marin Cilic wanted to remind everyone that he has no intention of playing extras at the IGA Stadium this week.
In an entirely Croatian duel, the former ATP third racket triumphed in two sets of 6-3 and 6-2 against Borna Coric, his compatriot ranked 157th in the world whom he defeated for an eighth time in as many of career attempts within the professional circuit. Kept away by COVID-19 at Wimbledon, the 33-year-old veteran looked good on the distant court 9, where he made four breaks in 11 chances to win in 1 h 22 min.
“My successes against him are difficult to explain because he is a good player who is solid, even though he suffered from injuries. [à l’épaule droite et à la jambe gauche] in the last few months. It’s been a long time since we faced each other, but our battles are always hard, ”said the winner who had the upper hand over Coric in three sets in their last match, in the first round in Toronto in 2018.
Big preparation for Flushing Meadows
The holder of the 16th level of the ATP wishes to land in New York, place of the United States Open, in excellent conditions. His great start in Montreal will help him in this direction, he hopes.
“The second chapter of the season begins after good tournaments and I felt good today,” he continued. Before this bad luck with COVID-19 which prevented me from playing at Wimbledon, I had achieved great results with semi-finals at Roland-Garros and Queen’s. It is therefore important to continue this momentum and accumulate meetings behind the tie.
“Giving me some rhythm ahead of the US Open will be crucial.”
However, the obstacles are not lacking this week and Cilic risks seeing it by rubbing shoulders with the Russian Karen Khachanov, 28th on the professional circuit, in the second round. Each man has won twice in his career against each other.
“We played twice earlier this year and he won each time. All of our matches have been close. He is an excellent player and he will have to be put to work,” said Cilic.
-In the other duels on Tuesday, the American Maxime Cressy disposed of the Russian Aslan Karatsev in two identical sets of 6-4. For his part, the French Adrian Mannarino beat his compatriot Arthur Rinderknech in two sets of 6-3 and 6-3.