Fourth seed Marin Cilic’s Rakuten Japan Open Championships 2016 campaign is off on the right foot after downing last year's finalist Benoit Paire on Monday. Cilic raced through the opening set in only 20 minutes, but the Frenchman rebounded strongly before succumbing 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in one hour and 49 minutes.
Cilic reached the quarter-finals in Tokyo last season before falling to home favourite Kei Nishikori. He will bid to reach his ninth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season when he next faces Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
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Paire, who defeated Nick Kyrgios and Nishikori en route to last year’s final, slipped to 1-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Cilic, whose superior firepower proved telling on Monday. The Croatian blasted 12 aces and only dropped serve once.
Meanwhile, Paire often found himself under pressure on his delivery. He landed just 45 per cent of first serves and was broken four times. The Frenchman had a final chance to extend the match late in the third set, but netted an aggressive backhand return at 2-4, 30/40 to concede the double break.
"I was returning well in the first set, but he started playing better in the second set. Before the match I knew that he would be dangerous even if I went up in the score," Cilic said.
"I was missing too many balls and not making him play in the critical situations. In the third set I went back to basics. In the second set I didn't serve to well, so I tried to get my first serve percentage up."
Verdasco took down home hopeful Go Soeda in little over two hours to book the second-round meeting with a 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-3 victory. The Spaniard claimed 73 per cent of first-serve points and broke four times.