RICKY DIMON REVIEWS WAWRINKA & CILIC WHO ARE STILL PLAYING TENNIS IN LONDON

Written by: Staff on 14th November 2014

RICKY DIMON REVIEWS WAWRINKA & CILIC WHO ARE STILL PLAYING TENNIS IN LONDON

epa04489992 Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland returns the ball to Marin Cilic of Croatia during their round robin match for the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 14 November 2014. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA |

With next to nothing to play for, Wawrinka and Cilic fight to the finish at World Tour Finals

There had not a single three-set singles match during round-robin play involving two of the original eight World Tour Finals participants. Alternate David Ferrer played one against Kei Nishikori on Thursday, but that was the extent of it until Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic took the court on Friday. Leave it to an almost entirely meaningless match to finally provide from excitement.

A back-and-forth affair saw Wawrinka–already through to the semifinals long before this one ended–battle back from a break down in the third set to outlast Cilic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. The fourth-ranked Swiss finished with a solid 28 winners to 25 unforced errors as he got the job done in one hour and 45 minutes.

By virtue of Tomas Berdych’s 6-2, 6-2 loss to Novak Djokovic earlier in the day, Wawrinka had to win just three games to clinch his place in the last four. Even a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Cilic, for example, would have left the No. 3 seed with the same 1-2 record as Berdych and Cilic but also with a better ratio of games won.

So after only four games, when Wawrinka had a 3-1 lead over Cilic, both men had their fates already sealed. Nonetheless, they fought through the second longest match of the week–trailing only Nishikori vs. Ferrer.

Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland returns the ball to Marin Cilic of Croatia during their round robin match for the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 14 November 2014. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

Marin Cilic of Croatia serves against Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland during their round robin match for the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 14 November 2014. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

First it was Cilic’s turn to erase a deficit. The U.S. Open champion forced a third set by breaking to love at 5-4 in the second. With momentum in hand, Cilic raced to a 2-0 advantage in the decider and seemed to be on course for his first-ever win at the prestigious year-end championship. Instead, the comeback ball moved to Wawrinka’s side of the court. Staring at 1-3 on the scoreboard, the Australian Open titlist reeled off five consecutive games to steal victory from Cilic’s grasp.

“Winning the match in three sets without playing the best tennis ever, making the semifinal again in the (World Tour Finals), it’s something big for me. It (does) not happen every year. It’s the second year in a row. I’m really proud with that; really happy.”

“I felt today with Stan that he maybe still isn’t at his best shape due to dropping in his level of the game,” Cilic said when asked to handicap all-Swiss semi between Wawrinka and Roger Federer. “His losses last couple months probably put some scar into it. But Stan is always very dangerous, so it’s going to be (an) interesting match. (They) always playing interesting matches; close encounters. But I feel that Roger has been playing a little bit better.”

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Marin Cilic, Ricky Dimon, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis, World Tour Finals

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10sBalls_com says:

November 14, 2014 at 7:14 pm

RICKY DIMON (@RD_Tennistalk) REVIEWS @stanwawrinka & @cilic_marin WHO ARE STILL PLAYING #TENNIS IN LONDON- http://t.co/ieZKnglhkH #ATPFinals
RD_Tennistalk says:

November 15, 2014 at 3:32 am

RT @10sBalls_com: RICKY DIMON (@RD_Tennistalk) REVIEWS @stanwawrinka & @cilic_marin WHO ARE STILL PLAYING #TENNIS IN LONDON- http://t.co/ie…