Rio Olympics 2016 tennis: 5 men's matches to look out for on Day-1
The 28th edition of the Summer Olympics is already underway with the archery and football events having already begun. The tennis tournament will commence tomorrow and is bound to be pretty exciting despite the likes of Federer, Raonic, Wawrinka and Berdych pulling out of the tournament owing to injury concerns or zika virus fears.
World No.1 Novak Djokovic will be looking to bag his first Olympic gold whereas No.2 Andy Murray would be wanting to create history by becoming the first player to win two successive gold medals in the singles tournament at the Olympics. With only a day left before the tennis tournament gets underway, let’s take a look at five matches to look out for on Day-1.
#5. Marin Cilic vs Grigor Dimitrov
World No. 14 Marin Cilic has been in decent form in the past couple of years which saw him win the 2014 US Open and reach the semifinals the following year as well as three successive quarter-final appearances at Wimbledon; the most recent one of which saw him nearly defeating Roger Federer after winning the first two sets and serving for the match in the fourth set before Federer snatched the match away from him.
Cilic, who is seeded 9th at Rio is a dark horse at the tournament and will be taking on Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round. The only time these two players locked horns before was the second round of the 2014 Brisbane International which Cilic won in straight sets. Cilic will be the overwhelming favorite coming into the match but the big serving Bulgarian is no pushover and will be expected to give the Croat a run for his money.