TennisSection previews the 2022 Adelaide Open as Marin Cilic takes on Laslo Djere in the quarterfinal on Friday, January 7th, 2022.
Will Marin Cilic win his 551st match on the ATP Tour? Will Laslo Djere make it three wins from three in 2022? This should be a barometer to gauge Cilic’s levels at the 2022 Adelaide Open considering he was pushed by the Serbian in their only previous meeting at the Madrid Masters.
Marin Cilic scored a landmark win in beating Thiago Monteiro in straights in his first match at the 2022 Adelaide Open. The Croat won 6-4 7-6 – a victory that would turn out to be his 550th match win of his terrific career. Cilic became just the 40th man in the Open Era to achieve that milestone. And aside from tennis’ famous Big Four quartet, he is the third active player after Richard Gasquet and Fernando Verdasco to do so. Milestones aside, Cilic looked in very good form in his straight-sets dissection of Monteiro. He dropped just seven points behind his first-serve whilst striking 16 aces to book a quarterfinal showdown against Laslo Djere.
Laslo Djere’s match against Corentin Moutet was full of drama and tension. Djere may have progressed at the expense of the Frenchman’s shameful default, but we have not had the last of this rivalry. The first set was highly competitive and stayed on serve until the ninth game when the Frenchman converted his third break point in the game before serving it out. And it appeared the left-handed Frenchman was cruising when he broke Djere for the second time in the middle of the second set to take a commanding 4-2 lead. That is when things started to unravel and a fiery Moutet would go ballistic at a number of calls from the chair umpire. His focus was gone as he did the tangling and Djere, remarkably, found a way back to level. Moutet would be disqualified for uttering the F word to the officials several times, costing him the match altogether.
Marin Cilic leads the series 1-0, beating Laslo Djere on the clay courts of Madrid in 2019. But hard courts are not the Serbian’s surface of preference. And given the power-packed game that Cilic possesses and his veteran knowhow, he is just a nightmare opponent for Djere at this stage. The Croat looked in fine fettle, barely showing any rustiness in beating an in-form Monteiro at the 2022 Adelaide Open. This should be another comfortable day of work for the former World No. 3.
Free Tennis Pick and Prediction: Marin Cilic in straight sets
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