Marin Cilic the top seed of the Japan Open crashes pout is a chocking defeat by the German player Jan-Lennard Struff in the very first round on Tuesday match.
Cilic; the former US Open champion seemed to be in control of the match in the first set with his brutal volley drive. Unfortunately for him things suddenly went out of his control after Struff performed splendidly and defeated him by 3-6, 6-4 and 7-6 to claim his victory.
Struff who was formerly shocking 50 places below Cilic is not standing at the No. 56 world rankings after leveling this match. His normal service in the final set assured his victory.
Cilic; this year’s Australian Open finalist tried to break the 3-2 with a backhand swing which allowed the ball to be dipped near Struff’s toes. However German strutted back twice to force a tie break.
Struff after two hours and 18 minutes long match managed to smash the tie and took a win by 7-1 with his 9th ace.
Struff’s next match is against French player Jeremy Chardy who defeated Bosnian player Damir Dzumhur by 4-6, 6-3 and 6-3.
On the other hand, Three times Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka also managed to advance by beating eight seed Taylor Fritz by 6-3 and 6-4. Eight seed Ruchard Gasquet managed to advance as well by claiming victory over American Denis Kudla by 7-6 and 6-3.
With demise of Cilic, there is hope for Kei Nishikori to once again win the Japan Open title. He has already won the crown to this tournament twice back in 2012 and 2014.
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