Cilic beats Isner in Madrid, sets up a clash against Ferrer

Croatian Marin Cilic overcame the big serving 8th seed American John Isner in two narrow sets 7-6 (4)  7-6 (3) and booked a place in the third round of the Madrid Tennis Masters.

Neither of the players managed to break each other’s serve throughout the whole match. Cilic was the one to keep his cool in both of the tiebreaks and set up a third round match against the 5th seed Spaniard David Ferrer.

After the lost match, Isner refused to blame the controversial blue clay, that has been critisised by the top two seeds Djokovic and Nadal.

Cilic now leads in the head to head record against Isner 2-0. Their only previous meeting was at the 2010 Australian Open, where the Croatian won in a five set thriller.

In round 3, Cilic will face the winner of the match between the 10th seed Argentine Del Potro and the Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

Also through to the next round are the 12th seed Frenchman Gael Monfils after the Russian qualifier Igor Andreev was forced to retire at 6-3  1-0 in Monfils’ favour and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, who eased past the Austrian Jurgen Melzer, beating him 6-1  6-4.

 

 

Tags blue clay Gael Monfils Igor Andreev John Isner Juan Martin del Potro Jurgen Melzer Madrid Tennis Masters Marin Cilic Mikhail Youzhny Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal Stanislas Wawrinka tennis news