An incredible day for Croatian tennis!
It has been one of the biggest days in the history of Croatian tennis which all began after Borna Ćorić won the Halle Open with a victory over Roger Federer. Just a few hours later, Marin Čilić won the Queen's Club Championship after triumphing over Novak Djoković with a score of 5:7, 7:6, 6:3, reports Index.hr on June 24, 2018.
This is the second time Čilić has won the Queen’s title, and the second time in his career he defeated Djoković. Čilić first beat the Serbian player two years ago in Paris after Djoković led the Croat 14-0 in duels. On the way to the victory, Čilić saved a single match-point, and Djoković missed a 4-1 lead in the tie-break of the second set. Marin had 18 aces in the match but only achieved 48 percent on his the first serve.
Čilić lost his first set, even though he had six break-points, of which five were in the seventh game. In the 12th game, Djoković waited for a poor serve by Čilić to take the advantage.
In the second set, Djoković missed the match-point at 4-5, and Čilić pulled out three top-quality serves. The set went to a tie-breaker when Djoković took a 4-1 lead. Čilić played fantastic tennis in that tie-break and won six points in a row. Djoković’s double error also helped at 4:3.
In the decisive third set, Čilić used Djoković’s poor service and took the lead 5-3 in the 8th game. Čilić served for the match without a mistake and was able to celebrate the 18th title in his career.
With the triumph in London, Čilić will return as the world No. 5 on Monday, just 20 points below Juan Martin Del Potro in fourth.
