Djokovic Advances In Madrid; Cilic Out With Food Poisoning
Djokovic Advances In Madrid; Cilic Out With Food Poisoning
Serbian star advances to his 62nd ATP Masters 1000 semi-final
Novak Djokovic advanced to the Mutua Madrid Open semi-finals for a sixth time on Friday without hitting a ball after Marin Cilic withdrew ahead of their match at the Caja Magica.
The 30-year-old Cilic announced his withdrawal – ahead of their 20th FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting – via Twitter, admitting he had food poisoning.
Dear fans, @mutuamadridopen organizers, @DjokerNole I am sorry to announce that I must withdraw from today’s match. I have had a terrible night dealing with a case of food poisoning. I am extremely disappointed to have my time in Madrid end in this way. Thank you for the support.
— Marin Cilic (@cilic_marin) May 10, 2019
“Marin is a top player and he’s a good friend of mine and he did text me saying he got some food poisoning,” said Djokovic. “So I really hope he’s going to recover for [next week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in] Rome. On my side, I tried to warm up and prepare for the match and then I went back on the court, trained for another hour and got a good sweat in. [I’m] happy that I’m going to be fresh for my semi-final match-up tomorrow.”
Ninth seed Cilic had won three three-set matches en route to the Madrid quarter-finals this week, saving four match points against Martin Klizan in the opening round; followed by victories over Jan-Lennard Struff and Laslo Djere.
Djokovic, the 2011 and 2016 champion in Madrid, will contest his 62nd ATP Masters 1000 semi-final against fourth-seeded Swiss Roger Federer, the three-time former titlist, who secured the 1,200th win of his career on Thursday, our fifth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem, a runner-up here for the past two years.
