2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament:
Viktor Troicki vs Marin Cilic – Quarterfinal Preview
World number 24, Serbia’s Viktor Troicki will face world number 28, Croatia’s Marin Cilic in the quarter-finals of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands on Friday the 11 February 2011.
Both, Troicki and Cilic, are currently in their top form and both are ranked in top 30. The higher ranked Serbian has won 60 percent of his matches since last year whereas Cilic have won 56 percent of his matches in 2010. They
are very similar on paper and Troicki is only two years older than Cilic. The Serbian has won four career titles while Cilic has won seven career titles.
Looking at their recent performances, Victor Troicki is in better shape. He has won 70 percent of his last ten matches and 65 percent of his last fifty matches. He displayed brilliant skills in the Australian Open Grand Slam until
he was injured and was forced to retire from the tournament in the third round against world number 3 and eventual champion Novak Djokovic. In this tournament, he defeated wild card entrant, Netherlands’ Thomas Schoorel, in straight sets in the first round.
In the second round he overpowered Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, who reached this spot after defeating third seed David Ferrer, in straight competitive sets.
On the other hand, Croatia’s Marin Cilic has a sixty percent winning record for the last ten matches and 56 percent winning record for the last fifty matches. But he is in great form too. He lost to world number one, Rafael Nadal
in the fourth round of Australian Open Grand Slam. He then lost to fifth seed German Florian Mayer in the quarter-finals of ATP Zagreb. In this ATP event, he wiped out German’s Mischa Zverev by straight sets in the first round and overpowered tournament fifth
seed, Austria’s Jurgen Melzer by easy straight sets again.
Both the players have met each other six times before and Cilic leads the head to head by 5-1. Troicki did win their last encounter though by easy straight sets. Looking at their statistics of their last head to head match, the
Serbian played amazingly with producing eleven aces and very few errors compared with seven aces and eight double faults by the Croatian. He saved all the break points and won with the help of single break of serve in the match. His service point winning percentage
of seventy percent was acceptable compared with Cilic’s 64 percent. His return point winning percentage of 35 percent was good too compared with 29 percent of the Croatian.
The world number 28, Croatia’s Marin Cilic can win against the higher ranked and the in-form Serbian Viktor Troicki as he has won five times before and will be more confident ahead of the clash. But this can only happen if he could
focus and re-form his concentration and produce fewer errors. He should be able to win easily if he saves all the break points and convert his break points in the match.
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