Jozef Kovalik kayos Marin Cilic

Kovalik made his intentions very clear when he made Cilic work hard to take his first service game, the second of the match. It looked like Cilic was getting his act right when he fired a couple of thunderous aces but with Kovalik placing the balls with cross-court winners, Cilic’s job became tougher. The players could not break each other’s serve and matched shot to shot and return to return. 

The Croat struggled with his first serve and repeatedly faltered while his returns were excellent. The 117-ranked player, who did his homework well, attacked Cilic’s second serve a lot. Kovalik used the baseline well and took a liking to playing cross-court winners and driving the ball down, to either side of Cilic as the top seed found the going tough. 

In the fifth game, Kovalik saved two break points with a sharp double handed flick and a forehand winner to go to deuce and take the game. Cilic fired two powerful aces in the next game as the quality of tennis dished out was astonishing. The tie-breaker was inevitable and Kovalik looked unstoppable as he fired in winners at will. 

Cilic tried to crawl back but Kovalik gave nothing away and ran away with the first set. The top-seed came all guns blazing in the second set and broke Kovalik in the second game with a top-class smash from the net. He finished the next game with precision and ease to move 3-0 up but a host of unforced errors in timing his shots dented his progress as the Slovakian player took the fourth game. 

Kovalik upped the ante immediately and saved two break points in the sixth game as he made full use of the width of the court to stretch Cilic to the maximum. He got the momentum needed and broke Cilic the next game as the top-seed double faulted to hand the advantage which the Slovakia player finished it with a backhand winner.  Cilic then kept his cool to break Kovalik to take the second set 7-5.

The third set wasn’t any different as both the players fought tooth and nail. Cilic couldn’t convert a break point in the eighth game to go up but faltered on return as Kovalik pounced on the chance to wrap up the game. Kovalic broke Cilic in the 11th game at 6-5 with stupendous placements to move closer towards a facile win. Serving for the match, the drama was far from over, when Cilic had three break points but couldn’t convert any as Kovalik became an instant hero.