Marin Čilić, Croatia’s current best tennis player, has advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters 1000 series in Paris.
Marin Čilić defeated Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (ATP - 23) by a score of 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the round of 16 of the Paris Masters, the last Masters 1000 tournament of the season. This is Čilić’s fourth win in the fifth leg against the 29-year-old Bautista Agut, which lasted exactly 100 minutes, reports Gol.hr on November 3, 2017.
With no time to rest for the Croat before the critical quarterfinal match, Čilić will play for a spot in the semifinals against the last remaining French player in the tournament, the 35-year-old Julien Benneteau (ATP - 83) this evening at 19:30.
This will be Marin's fourth face-off against the Frenchman - and, fortunately, Marin has been better in all three previous duels. The last time they met, however, was in 2009 in Beijing.
If Marin pulls out a win and advances to the semifinals, he will jump from his current fifth place position in the ATP ranking to the fourth best tennis player in the world. In the event he wins the Paris tournament, he will become the third best tennis player in the world - one of the highest placements of a Croatian player in the ATP rankings. If you recall, Ivan Ljubičić was ranked third best in May 2006, and the best overall placement for a Croatian tennis player was by Goran Ivanišević who was once second best in the world.
If Čilić passes Benneteau this evening, he will play in the semifinals against the winner of Verdasco and Sock.
Excerpts taken from Gol.hr
