Marin Cilic was pushed to the limit by Fernando Verdasco in the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 on Wednesday, but the No. 4 seed ultimately rallied to win 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in two hours and 25 minutes.
“In the first two sets, I was controlling the rallies in the critical points but just missing by a little bit,” Cilic said. “Later I found my rhythm a bit with my first serve, and then he was up and down in the third set. I felt that mentally I was always there, and I was happy to pull out of a difficult situation.”
Cilic, No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, strengthened his case to make the elite eight-man field at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals while Tomas Berdych, the man ranked immediately above the Croatian, suffered a 7-6(7), 6-1 setback at the hands of Gilles Muller earlier on the same court. Cilic trails Berdych by 470 points and can take over No. 9 by winning the ATP World Tour 500 event.
Cilic came into the match against Verdasco as the favourite, not only by virtue of his superior Emirates ATP Ranking, but also because he had been undefeated against the Spanish left-hander on hard court since 2011.
With the roof closed due to inclement weather, Verdasco made the most of his spinning wide serve on the ad court, saving all three break points faced in the opening set. The Croatian appeared in deep trouble when he was broken to love in the first game of the second set, but gradually gained the upper hand during baseline rallies and fought his way back into contention. He broke serve five times in the final two sets and secured the win on his first match point when Verdasco ploughed a backhand wide.
Berdych was coming into Tokyo on a high after claiming his first title of 2016 at the Shenzhen Open last week. He appeared in control during the early portion of the match, racing to a 0/40 lead on the Muller serve in the sixth game. However, the Luxembourg native swept the next five points to hold, then eked out the tie-break after saving a set point. An ailing Berdych called for the trainer midway through the second set, but could not find any solutions against the left-handed serve-and-volleyer.
“I had some chances to break but he saved those break points and began to play much better,” said Berdych, who missed the US Open due to appendicitis. “Then at the start of the second set, my body was giving me signs that I’ve been playing too much tennis after the last couple of week.”