Spain’s Carlo Alcaraz beats Croatia’s Marin Cilic to progress to the final 16 of the Qatar Open.
High-seeded Carlos Alcaraz has overcome Croatian veteran Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4 to succeed in the spherical of 16 on the Qatar Open.
The 36-year-old Cilic, the 2014 United States Open champion who has fallen to quantity 192 within the rankings, was enjoying his first match of the season after recovering from a long-term knee harm.
The Croatian led 4-3 and 0-40 on Alcaraz’s serve within the second set on Friday, however the Spanish four-time main winner managed to recuperate after which broke within the subsequent recreation.
“I’m simply actually comfortable that I stayed calm at that second – respiration, going by my routines, making good factors,” Alcaraz mentioned. “That’s why I used to be capable of win in two units.”
Alcaraz will play both China’s Zhang Zhizhen or Italy’s Luca Nardi subsequent.
Earlier, seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov misplaced 6-4, 6-4 to Jiri Lehecka.
Additionally on Monday, eighth-seeded Briton Jack Draper beat Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-2, 7-6 (4) to arrange a gathering with one other Australian, Christopher O’Connell.
A number of different prime gamers will play their first matches on Tuesday.
Second-seeded Alex de Minaur will face Roman Safiullin. Novak Djokovic, who needed to pull out of his Australian Open semifinal with a hamstring harm, will tackle Matteo Berrettini.
Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Stefano Tsitsipas may even play on Tuesday.
