Not the news you’d like to hear about Croatia’s best tennis player Marin Čilić.
The best Croatian tennis player Marin Čilić, who is currently ranked number 10 in the world, has canceled his appearance at the ATP 500 series tournament in Rotterdam, also known as the Rotterdam Open. Marin has been forced to pull out of the competition due to an unhealed injury to his right knee which has agitated the tennis player since last season, reports HRT on February 8, 2019.
Čilic achieved excellent results at the ABN AMRO World Tennis tournament in previous years, where he was defeated by Czech player Tomas Berdych in the 2014 final and finished in the quarterfinals three times.
Čilić announced the news in a message to his fans on his Instagram page.
“While my knee rehabilitation is going well, I am still not able to perform at the level I expect of myself, and will have to skip @abnamrowtt. I was greatly looking forward to returning to this tournament to build on previous success, and am hopeful I will have the opportunity next year. In the meantime, I will keep fighting hard to get back to 100% for my next tournament in Dubai!”
In addition to Čilić, German player Alexander Zverev and Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov have also pulled out of the Rotterdam tournament due to injury.
However, there is still a chance for Croatian tennis players to compete in Rotterdam. Namely, Franko Škugor entered in the qualifiers and will play in the doubles part of the competition. To advance to the main tournament, Škugor needs to win against two rivals, and in the 1st round, he will face Belarusian tennis player Ilya Ivashka.
The first seed of the tournament in Rotterdam is Japanese play Kei Nishikori and the second-seed is Russian Karen Khachanov.
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