2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis, Jurgen Melzer vs. Marin Cilic, preview
Austrian ace, Jurgen Melzer, takes on the Croat giant, Marin Cilic, as second round matches continue at the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Wednesday.
Ranked eleventh in the world, Melzer, is playing at his first tour level event for the year in Rotterdam this week. Finishing last year in the top ten, Melzer first took to the courts a week before the Australian Open when he participated in the exhibition
event at Kooyong, the AAMI Classic.
Moving ahead with a win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a loss against Gael Monfils put Melzer in the match for the third fourth place against Nikolay Davydenko. A win over the Russian enabled the Austrian to finish third in the event.
Playing in the Grand Slam Down Under as the eleventh seed, Melzer, fought his way into the fourth round where he lost to eventual runner up, Andy Murray.
As he kicks off his ATP Tour at the Rotterdam event, the Austrian is putting in his fourth year here. Debuting in 2006, Melzer failed to move past the first round as he lost to Oliver Rochus. His lucky break at the event came in 2010, when he enjoyed a quarterfinal
run here. He was stopped from advancing in the event by Nikolay Davydenko.
Seeded fifth in the event this year, Melzer, started his run against local wildcard entrant, Jesse Huta Galung. Despite his opponent enjoying the home crowd support, Melzer, was able to record a twin set score victory of 6-4, 6-4 to move ahead in the event.
As he prepares to meet Cilic for the second round match today, Melzer, already lags 2-4 in the head to head score. Though ranked higher than Cilic, Melzer has always had trouble from the Croat giant. The hard hitting Croat not only has the height advantage
but he’s also younger and with that argument perhaps fitter than the Austrian.
Currently ranked 28th in the world, Cilic slipped out of the top 20 after his quarterfinal exit at the PBZ Zagreb Indoor last week. Seeded first in the main draw, Cilic enjoyed a bye into the second round. A victory against Igor Kunitsyn was followed
by Cilic losing to Florian Mayer.
Cilic had earlier participated at the 2011 Aircel Chennai Open. A defending champion there, it came as much surprise to everyone when Cilic was upset in his first match there by rising Japanese star, Kei Nishikori.
A semi-finalist at the Australian Open in 2010, Cilic had a disappointing run at the event this year. Seeded fifteenth in the event, Cilic failed to make it past the fourth round as he fell to world number one, Rafael Nadal.
His exit from the event resulted in the Croat losing ranking points as he failed to defend his semi-final points. The loss cost the Croat a drop in the rankings.
Playing at the first ATP 500 level event of the year, Cilic made his debut in the event this week. His first win at Rotterdam came on Monday when he defeated the German qualifier, Mischa Zverev. Losing only six games, Cilic was able to record a straight
sets victory of 6-2, 6-4 against the German.
Prediction: Although Melzer is ranked much higher than the Croat, the fact remains that he has been defeated by Cilic more than times than he’s won against him. Given their recent form, it is too close to call a favourite though the odds
tip slightly in the Croats favour.
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