After surprising the tennis world twelve months ago by picking up his first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows, Marin Cilic returned to New York, kicking off his title defence on the Louis Armstrong Arena against Argentine qualifier Guido Pella.
The Croatian got his campaign off to the best start possible by breaking Pella’s opening service game and never looked back as he apparently didn’t switch through the gears to coast to the opening set 6-3.
In their first ever meeting, the lefty from Bahia Blanco made life much more difficult for the tall Croatian than expected and if anyone thought it would be a stroll in the park for Goran Ivanisevic’s pupil after the opening set they were very wrong. Cilic struggled to connect cleanly with many of Pella’s serves, which is far from powerful but tricky, and never really found a rhythm which is so important for a player of Cilic’s characteristics who plays such an aggresive game.
The following two sets would go all the way to a tiebreak and ended identically: with Cilic closing them out 7-3. The Croatian only managed to conjure up 13 aces but more positive reading will be the fact that he fired 44 winners past Guido Pella. The first game of a Grand Slam is always a nervous ordeal and more so when returning to defend a title after an indifferent season but for Cilic today it was all about locking down a win and not specifically making it pretty.
He may not be playing his best tennis but judging on the scenes from the Louis Armstrong Arena today, there’s one thing the Croatian can definitely count on and that’s rapturous support for the fans. Next up for Cilic is the winner of the first round tie between Lucas Pouille and Evgeny Donskoy.
