Chennai Open: Jozef Kovalik sends top seed Cilic packing

Chennai: Neither Marin Cilic nor Jozef Kovalik would have imagined the outcome of their match in the Chennai Open here on Wednesday. Slovakia’s Kovalik knocked out the tournament’s top seed and world no. 6 Cilic 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-5 in a cataclysmic upset in the second round.

For Cilic, playing a qualifier must have been just another day at office, but the Croat had to encounter deuce and break point in his first service game. The former US Open champion relied on his strong serve with eight aces in all but couldn’t prevent his opponent edging it in tie-breaker. The match went to the tie-breaker only as a result of Kovalik’s resilience as the Slovak clinched the fifth game after saving two break points.

For someone who is six feet tall, on the shorter side in tennis, Kovalik’s serve packed a punch and his strong double-handed backhand troubled the top seed no end. At 2-2 in the tie-breaker, he served a double fault to hand the advantage to Cilic and it did look that all his hard work in the previous games had gone down the drain. But Kovalik steadied his nerve through penetrating forehands to pocket the set.

The Croat showed why he is part of the top 10 in the world as he broke Kovalik’s first service game in the second set. Kovalik, ranked 117th in the world, had nothing lose; he was out there to give his all. More important, he was not intimidated by the reputation of his opponent. Kovalik managed to break Cilic’s serve in the seventh game but it wasn’t enough to stop the Croat from taking the set.

Two hours into the match and after engrossing end-to-end tennis, the question was about who wanted it more. Credit must be given to the players for giving every ounce of their energy. Just when it appeared that the Slovak had taken his foot off the gas, he produced brilliant down the line backhands to stun his opponent.

Cilic’s serves were getting better as the set progressed and all he had to do was play percentage tennis to force a break. But it was he who blinked first, as the crowd threw its weight behind the underdog. In the 11th game, Kovalik gained a vital break for a 6-5 lead. Cilic got an opportunity to break back but he squandered it to lose his first match of the season.