Open13 2011: Marin Cilic vs. Philipp Petzschner Preview
Continuing to dip in the rankings every week since the start of this season, Croat giant Marin Cilic looks to salvage his position as he continues his campaign at the Open13 2011 in Marseille, France, on Thursday. Unseeded at the event, Cilic plays German
Philipp Petzschner.
A former top ten player, Cilic started the year ranked 15th in the world. A two-time defending champion at the Aircel Chennai Open 2011, the Croat met with unexpected results when he was upset in the second round by rising Japanese Kei Nishikori.
Playing next at the Australian Open 2011 as the fifteenth seed, Cilic moved past Donald Young, Santiago Giraldo and John Isner to make it into the fourth round before losing to world number one Rafael Nadal. A semi-finalist at the event in 2010, a fourth
round exit in 2011 meant negative points for the Croat as he dropped five places in the rankings.
Returning home from the Grand Slam, Cilic appeared at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors as the second seed. Receiving a bye in the first round, Cilic defeated Igor Kunitsyn in the second round before falling to Florian Mayer in the quarterfinals. Despite the home court
advantage, Cilic suffered an early exit in the event which caused a further drop in his ranking, bringing him down to number 28 in the world.
Last week Cilic appeared unseeded at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament 2011. He made his way into the quarterfinals moving past Mischa Zverev and fifth seeded Jurgen Melzer. Meeting Serb Viktor Troicki in the quarterfinals, Cilic was ousted from the event
in straight sets.
Continuing his run on the tour, Cilic appears at Marseille for the second year after having made his debut in 2008. Beginning his second run here, Cilic surpassed his career best here when he defeated Swiss qualifier Stephane Bohli in the opening round on
Tuesday. Bouncing back from being one set down, Cilic prevailed 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-2 to ensure his survival at the event.
Meeting the 60th ranked German after more than a year; Cilic holds a perfect 2-0 lead in the career head to head. The pair’s last meeting had come in their first round match at the 2009 Basel event, with the Croat enjoying an easy twin set score victory
of 6-4, 6-4 against the German.
Although Marseille this week is Petzschner’s fifth event on the tour this season, the German still needs to find his foothold since he has failed to move past the second round in any of the events. A first round exit in the season opening Brisbane event
was followed by a defeat at the hands of David Nalbandian in the second round of the Heineken Open. What followed next was a series of first round exits with the German falling in opening clashes at the Australian Open, the PBZ Zagreb Indoors and the ABN AMRO
World Tennis Tournament.
Making his debut here this week, Petzschner started his campaign against seventh seed Ernests Gulbis. Securing a hard fought 7-2 win in the opening tiebreaker, Petzschner coupled it with a breadstick win in the second set to move on ahead in the event.
Prediction: Given the Croat’s higher ranking, plus the statistical-c*m-psychological advantage of having never been beaten by the German, tip the odds considerably in Cilic’s favour. However, the German’s recent win against the seventh seed
suggests that the match will definitely not be over in straight sets.
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