Marin Cilic played with greater confidence on Thursday at Roland Garros, but experienced a tough route into the third round after he failed to convert one match point chance in the third set.
The third-seeded Croatian recorded his 20th match win of the season (20-8) by beating past 21-year-old Polish qualifier Hubert Hurkacz 6-2, 6-2, 6-7(3), 7-5 in two hours and 50 minutes.
"I felt that I just took my foot off the gas and just gave him a little bit more room to breathe," Cilic said. "I felt like I was constantly close to breaking. I just felt like I was not returning as good as I can and just missed some returns, especially in some critical moments. And then the fourth set he was serving well... there were not many opportunities, but luckily I finished it in a good way."
Having lost just five of his first-service points through the first two sets, Cilic committed 38 of his 48 unforced errors in the next one hour and 45 minutes. He will next look to raise his game against American Steve Johnson, who moved past Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-2.
[ALSO LIKE]Cilic saved the first break point of the match against No. 188-ranked Hurkacz in the fifth game, prior to breaking for a 4-2 lead. Having hit nine winners in the opener, Cilic broke twice in the 32-minute second set and lost just six of his service points.
Hurkacz served better in the third set, and a lapse in concentration by Cilic led to a service break for a 3-2 lead. The Croatian star bounced back immediately and could not convert one match point opportunity when leading 6-5, with Hurkacz serving at 30/40. Cilic paid the price in the tie-break, then, almost 50 minutes later, he raised his game to convert his eighth break point of the fourth set for a 6-5 advantage.
The lowest-ranked player that Cilic has lost to at a Grand Slam championship is France’s Thierry Ascione, who was No. 168 in the ATP Rankings, at Roland Garros in 2007. The 29-year-old recently reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court semi-final at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia (l. to A. Zverev).
"I'm playing well. I'm feeling great on the court. The results in [the] past 12 months have showed that I have that ability to win Grand Slams," Cilic said. "So I'm really looking forward to the rest of the tournament and hoping that I'm going to continue to play well and challenge the best guys."
Elsewhere, Italian No. 18 seed Fabio Fognini hit 27 winners to earn his 24th match victory of the season (9-5 on clay), defeating Elias Ymer of Sweden 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in just under two hours. He will next challenge British No. 16 seed Kyle Edmund.
Edmund won 82 per cent of his first-service points to beat Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, last week's Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open champion, 6-0, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 16 minutes.
Did You Know?
Marin Cilic has won two of his 17 tour-level titles on clay courts at the 2012 Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag (d. Granollers) and the 2017 TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open (d. Raonic).