No joy for Cilic in Australia.
Marin Cilic, the last Croatian in the singles competition of the Australian Open lost his third round match against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, in three sets 4-6,6-7(5), 5-7, reports Index.hr on January 23, 2016.
This was their third match, with the previous two having been played in the finals of the ATP tournament in Moscow in 2014 and 2015, and both were won by Cilic. This time there was no stopping Bautista Agut who continued a good run after winning the tournament in Auckland(NZ), notching his eighth win in a row.
In the opening of the match both players held their serve without too many problems. Bautista Agut was first to attack in the fifth game, had two break points but did not manage to convert either of them. The Spaniard kept up the pressure and finally broke Cilic in the seventh game and went on to win the first set.
In the second set Cilic managed to improve his game, held his serve and went 0-40 up, but the Spaniard managed a come back to hold his serve. Cilic got the second chance at 3-2 and this time he took it, and for a liitle while it looked like he was back in the match. It did not last as Bautista Agut leveled at 5-5 and the match went into tie break where the world no.21 inreased the lead.
The third set was much alike to the first, with Bautista Agut playing good tennis and having things under control, while Cilic was having a day to forget ending up with 55 unforced errors.
On his way to week 2 in Melbourne he will face world no.6 Tomas Berdych.
