Cilic Battles Past Tipsarevic In Den Bosch

Marin Cilic began his 2017 grass-court swing with a hard-fought 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-4 victory over former World No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic on Thursday for a place in the Ricoh Open quarter-finals.

Cilic, who hit 17 aces, could not convert three set point opportunities from 6/3 in the first set tie-break. But he regrouped to win four straight games from 2-2 in the second set and then broke Tipsarevic in the third game of the decider in the one-hour and 58-minute encounter. He is competing at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament for the first time since 2006.

“It’s never easy, especially the first match on grass,” said Cilic. “Janko has been at the top of the tennis game and is a quality player. I had a difficult time coming back and although I was unfortunate to lose the first set tie-break, I kept my cool and served well. I got a break point at 2-2 [in the second set], then I started to play better.”

Cilic is one match win away from recording his 50th grass-court match win of his career. He captured the 2012 Aegon Championships crown (d. Nalbandian) and finished runner-up at The Queen’s Club the following year (l. to Murray).

“I’m playing way, way better than at the start of the year and my clay-court game helped me to get into the right hitting zone,” said Cilic. “Having strong mental toughness, that you need on clay, also gives me confidence.”

Top seed Cilic will now face Canada’s Vasek Pospisil, who led 7-6(2), 4-2 when Alexandr Dolgopolov retired after 82 minutes of play. Pospisil is through to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since October 2015 at Valencia, where he reached the semi-finals.

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Ivo Karlovic lost just eight of his service points to knock out wild card Stefan Kozlov 6-4, 6-1. The third seed hit nine aces and won 28 of his 31 first-service points.

“It was good as I was here preparing here for the past seven days,” Karlovic told ATPWorldTour.com. “It was difficult in the beginning as he was playing well, then I began to relax more. I’m happy with the way I performed.”

Karlovic has a 3-3 record in grass-court finals, including title triumphs at 2007-2008 Nottingham and the 2016 Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open in Newport.

He’ll next face Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, who beat fellow 21-year-old #NextGenATP Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-3, 7-6(3) in 80 minutes. Medvedev is eighth in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, one spot below the cut-off for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in November.

“Thanasi always plays well, but unfortunately he had something with his wrist today,” Medvedev told ATPWorldTour.com. “The second set was tight, so I am happy to get through a match like this.”

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