US Open champ Cilic survives ‘counterpunch’

The Croatian was forced to fight hard against Chung of South Korea.

WASHINGTON: Reigning US Open champion Marin Cilic and runner-up Kei Nishikori advanced to the third round of the ATP and WTA Washington Open in hard-fought matches that finished early Wednesday morning.

Japan’s fifth-ranked Nishikori rallied to beat Australian James Duckworth 6-7 (8/10), 6-1, 6-4, while Croatia’s eighth-ranked Cilic defeated 77th-ranked South Korean teen Chung Hyeon 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 in their first hardcourt appearances on the road to this year’s US Open.

“It wasn’t easy to put him away,” said Cilic. “He’s a great counterpuncher.”

Cilic booked a third-round meeting with American Sam Querrey, who fired 26 aces to oust Japan’s Go Soeda 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Cilic, the first reigning US Open champion to play in the US capital since Andre Agassi in 2000, and second seed Nishikori each had first round byes and saw their matches pushed into the wee hours by a rain delay.

Nishikori, playing his first match since pulling out of Wimbledon in the second round with a calf injury, fought back after dropping a tense tie-breaker to seize command of the match.

“From the second set I started playing better, less unforced errors, more aggressive,” said the 25-year-old Asian number one. “I was happy with how I played after the first set.”

Stosur captures 500th career singles win

Australia’s Samantha Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, won her 500th career singles match victory, defeating France’s Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-2 at the WTA and ATP Washington Open.

The 31-year-old second seed from Brisbane needed only 64 minutes to improve to 4-0 against Mladenovic and book a second-round date with American Irina Falconi.

“My serve set me up. There weren’t a lot of long rallies. Bing. Bang. It was over,” said Stosur, who had no clue about the landmark win total until well after the victory.

“Now that I know, [it feels] really good,” said Stosur of her milestone triumph. “Five hundred is a lot of matches. Nice to make that and know you have had a pretty big career.”

The top Aussie on the all-time women’s match win list is Evonne Goolagong Cawley with 695.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th,  2015.

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