WHAT HAPPENED: On Day 1 of the tournament, Marin Cilic, the No. 31 seed from Croatia, played a five-set Round 1 match, to get his win over American Denis Kudla. After a day of rest, the 6-foot-6 Croat faced Norbert Gombos from Slovakia, ranked No. 104 in the world, in Round 2.
Cilic often takes the long road to victory and in the first sets of this match it looked as if he was headed that way once again. The Croat got off to a hot start, winning the first set, 6-3, only to lose the second, 1-6. It wasn’t until the third set that the two players seemed to settle in. It would end in a tiebreak, won decisively by Cilic, 7-2.
Both players left the court between the third and fourth sets, putting the Croat’s momentum on pause. When play resumed, Gombos appeared to grab the edge, hitting more winners and dialing back on both double faults and unforced errors. The Slovak even got a look at a set point when Cilic served at 4-5. But Gombos dumped what should have been an easy return into the net. With the match level, Cilic broke Gombos’ serve and, at the three-hour mark, served for the match. He was able to close it out on his first match point, with the final score: 6-3, 1-6, 7-6, 7-5.
WHAT IT MEANS: So far so good for tennis players from Croatia. Both Borna Coric and Petra Martic are moving on to Round 3. Joining them, Cilic will play No. 2 seed Dominic Thiem, who beat Sumit Nagal in his Round 2 match.
MATCH POINT: In Round 1, two former US Open champions rallied back from two sets down to win their matches: Cilic and Andy Murray, who was the 2012 US Open men’s singles champion. In his Round 2 match, Cilic closed it out in four sets. Will Murray follow suit tonight, when he faces Felix Auger-Aliassime?
