Spain’s Carlo Alcaraz beats Croatian Marin Silic to advance to the final 16 of the Qatar Open.
Top seeded Carlos Alkaraz overcame Croatian veteran Marin Silic 6-4, 6-4 to reach the 16th round at the Qatar Open.
Cilic, 36, the 2014 US Open champion who fell to 192nd in the rankings, played his first game of the season after recovering from a long-term knee injury.
The Croats led 4-3 and 0-40 in Alkaraz’s serve in the second set on Friday, but the Spanish four-time major winner managed to recover and broke in the next game.
“I’m so happy that I was calm at that moment. I’m breathing, going through my routine and building up the good points,” Alkaraz said. “That’s why I was able to win in two sets.”
Alcaraz will then perform Chinese Zhang Zizhen or Italian Luca Nardi.
Previously, the seventh seed Grigordimitrov lost 6-4, 6-4 to Zililehekka.
Also on Monday, eighth seed Briton Jack Draper set up a meeting with another Australian Christopher O’Connell, beating Australia’s Alexei Popilin 6-2, 7-6 (4).
Several other top players will play their first match on Tuesday.
Second seed Alex Deminaur will face Roman Safiurin. Novak Djokovic, who had to withdraw from Australia’s Open Semi-finals due to a hamstring injury, takes on Matteobrettini.
Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Stefano Tsitsipas will also play on Tuesday.
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