2014 US Open Champion Marin Cilic turned back the clock at the Dubai ATP 500 event on Tuesday, defeating top-ten ranked Alex De Minaur in three sets.
Cilic’s win over De Minaur was just one of multiple major upsets in Dubai today. Quentin Halys got through in a 3rd set tiebreaker against last week’s Doha champion and this week’s number three seed, Andrey Rublev. Other upsets included number eight seed Arthur Fils falling to Nuno Borges and number six seed Grigor Dimitrov retiring after losing the opening set 0-6 against Christopher O’Connell.
The key to Cilic’s big win today wasn’t his powerful serve. He only served 60% with his first serve and only tallied three aces to three double faults. The difference was his break point conversion percentage. He converted on 4/4 opportunities, while De Minaur was only able to break Cilic’s serve on 2/7 of his chances.
“It was a great start for me,” said Cilic, who was able to improve to 3-2 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. “Winning the first three games, getting a feel for the court, the conditions. It was a little bit gusty, but I was feeling the ball extremely well. I know how dangerous Alex is… He is an incredible runner on the court, he gets some balls that nobody gets. I had to stay patient but aggressive. I’m just so pleased that I was able to keep that great level throughout the whole match.”
“I haven’t had that many chances to settle in this season,” said Cilic, who is set to face Alexei Popyrin in the second round. “Last week I played Carlos in Doha, Alex here. They’re both Top 10 guys playing extremely well. It’s a great effort from me, a great sign that I’m playing really well. It’s a matter of matches for me that I can get in the match form. Hopefully I can keep the form going.”
Cilic, who was the 2018 finalist at the Australian Open, had to miss the event this year due to injury. His first match back was in Doha last week, where he gave top-three ranked Carlos Alcaraz a good battle in a tight straight set loss. It looks like one match was all he needed to get back to producing some of his top level tennis.
