Marin Cilic living hard times
Croatian no. 6 in ATP rankings has a tough finish of the season. After he reached semifinals in Cincinnati (loss with Djokovic 4:6 6:3 3:6) and quarterfinals at US Open (loss with Nishikori 6:2 4:6 6:7 6:4 4:6) everything looked fine. He helped Croatian team to reach Davis Cup final with win over Frances Tiafoe (6:1 6:3 7:6) and loss with Sam Querrey (7:6 6:7 3:6 4:6) on the clay court.
Maybe the loss with Sam Querrey was a sign of coming decay. Return to hard courts did not go well. He tried to make an impact in Tokio at Rakuten Open but lost with Jan Lennard Struff (6:3 4:6 6:7) in his first appearance. Then he moved to Shanghai and lost again in his first match. This time with Nicolas Jarry (6:2 6:7 5:7).
No offense to Struff and Jarry, both are good and talented players. However, Marin Cilic should win those games. He won first set in both matches. He served for the win in the third set against Jarry and he did not succeed. He lost 3 games in a row (two own serves) and match in a very short time then.
Marin Cilic looked absolutely uninterested and clueless at the end of both matches. It seems, that change from hard courts at US Open to clay in the Davis Cup and then return to hard courts again in Asia did not suit him.
He is still in the race for Nitto ATP Finals in London. And he will definitely play in Basel and Paris before. It looks like a tough schedule is taking its toll on Cilic. Moreover, he should lead Croatian team in Davis Cup week after ATP Finals.
That does not look good for Croatia hopes for the title. That does not look good for exhausted Marin Cilic.
Tennis Column is irregular and biased opinion column written by Tennis Pro Guru about everything tennis related.
Davis Cup 2019 – will top players be present?
November Davis Cup Final will be the last in the current era. Starting next year, we will see a new one-week long team tournament under the old name.
ITF hopes for a new and rich era of quality, but players think the opposite. Djokovic and Federer openly talked about skipping next year Davis Cup. Federer added, that he sees it as the tournament for “nextgen” players. But the prominent “nextgen” player Alexander Zverev is also openly saying no to Davis Cup 2019 participation.
The term (a week after ATP Finals) and the competition format does not look inviting for many players. The top players appreciate the rest more.
It can easily happen, that Davis Cup 2019 will be very close to any ATP 500 tournament. Just one or two ATP Top 20 players and a lot of ATP 50 to 100 players.
We will see how it develops, but now Davis Cup is making space for Laver Cup as main team tournament event.
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