Paris Masters 2018: Djokovic, Cilic set up exciting Quarter Final meeting
After a chaotic day at the 2018 Rolex Paris Masters that was full of walkovers and withdrawals, it was time to put all the focus on tennis that was on display in the Round of 16.
To kick off the day, it was Marin Cilic who took on Grigor Dimitrov in a topsy-turvy encounter, and it was the big Croat who came out on top with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win.
Dimitrov started the match with a little spring in his step, creating two break opportunities in the very first game with some aggressive play, but Cilic snapped away both the chances in a flash with some trustworthy big serves.
In the very next game, it was now Dimitrov who found himself down 0-40, but he also erased the deficit quickly with some big serves of his own. But the Croat kept on pushing and converted on his fourth opportunity to take a 2-0 lead.
Dimitrov, though, was not rattled by this as he then created three break opportunities for himself, but failed to convert any of those due to some untimely errors. But just like Cilic previously, the Bulgarian also kept on plugging and finally converted on his fourth opportunity to get the match back on serve.
After that, both players held on to their serve with relative ease, without facing any more break points.
Then, at 4-5, Dimitrov played a poor game with two unforced errors and a double fault to go down 15-40, handing a couple of set points to Cilic. But the Bulgarian came up with some immaculate play under pressure to save both the set points and held on for 5-5.
Then at 5-6, Dimitrov again found himself down 14-50, and Cilic still wasn’t able to capitalize on any of those chances. Another opportunity came a couple of points later, and yet again the Bulgarian came up with some clutch play to take the set to a tiebreaker.
The breaker was more of the same, where both players traded mini-breaks initially.
After the first changeover, Cilic shanked a couple of forehands to go down 3-5 in the breaker, and just when it looked Dimitrov might just steal the set way, Cilic reeled off 4 points in a row and finally took the opener on his 6th set point, much to his relief.
In the second set, Cilic rode the momentum of the first and broke Dimitrov immediately to take a 2-0 lead.
It was all Cilic for the rest of the set as he kept putting pressure on the Bulgarian’s deliveries and held his own with ease and closed out the match comfortably to reach the Quarter Finals.
He sets up a meeting with Novak Djokovic, who eased past an injured Damir Dzumhur, who retired after being down 1-6, 1-2 as the curse of injuries in Bercy continued.
Djokovic started the match the way he has been playing since Wimbledon, stable and resilient off the ground and got himself an early break to lead 2-1.
The Serb looked in much better shape physically than his previous match, where he seemed down with a bit of a cold.
Dzumhur, on the other hand, had no answer to Djokovic’s solidity and on top of that, he tweaked something in his back while reaching for a backhand in the sixth game, down 1-4.
He made matters worse as that game went on for over 10 minutes, ending in yet another break for the Serb.
At the end of the game, Dzumhur received a medical timeout and took some pills to help with the injury.
Djokovic, although, took care of his side of the business and closed the set 6-1, and in doing so, equaled his longest sets streak of 29 consecutive sets (previous best US Open 2015- Paris SF 2015).
The second set started in similar fashion as the first, with Djokovic breaking serve in just the third game. But after just getting broken, Dzumhur decided to call it a day and retired, making Djokovic ease into yet another Quarter Final.
The meeting with Cilic seems a fascinating one for Djokovic as even though the Serb leads the head to head between the two 15-2, Cilic got one of those wins this year in the Queen’s Final after saving a championship point and the other, right here in Paris at the same stage in 2016.
They have also met one more time this year, at Cincinnati, in the semi-finals where Djokovic came up with a tight 3 set win.