Chile's Jarry Saves Two M.P. To Beat Cilic
Chile’s Jarry Saves Two M.P. To Beat Cilic
Chile’s Nicolas Jarry saved two match points against No. 6 Marin Cilic to earn the biggest win of his career on Tuesday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
The 22-year-old came from a set down and broke Cilic while he was serving for the match to advance 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-5. Cilic had two match points in the second set – at 5-4, 40/30 on Jarry’s serve and while serving at 6/5 in the second-set tie-break – but Jarry saved them both, benefitting in the tie-break when Cilic shanked a backhand wide.
The Croatian then broke in the third and served for the match at 5-4 but couldn’t finish off the 6’6” Chilean, whose previous Top 10 win (2-1) had come against No. 8 Dominic Thiem in July in Hamburg.
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It’s only Jarry’s second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 win, and his seventh hard-court victory of 2018 (7-6). On clay, he reached the Brasil Open final in February (l. to Fognini) and semi-finals in Rio de Janeiro, Hamburg and Kitzbuhel.
Cilic stumbled near the finish line last week as well. During his second-round match in Tokyo, the Croatian served for the match twice but fell in three sets to German Jan-Lennard Struff.
The Croatian is looking to secure his fourth appearance – and third consecutive – at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 11-18 November at The O2 in London. He is currently in sixth place in the ATP Race To London; the top eight will qualify for the season finale.
Jarry will next meet Brit Kyle Edmund or Italian Andreas Seppi. Cilic’s countryman Borna Coric advanced 6-4, 6-2 against Bradley Klahn of the U.S. Coric will next face Richard Gasquet or third seed Juan Martin del Potro.