Tata Open Maharashtra: World No. 17 Cilic beats Carballes Baena to enter quarterfinals
The HinduMarin Cilic is evidently in a happy space. In his first media interaction, the burly Croat of gentle demeanour extended New Year greetings with a wide grin and jokingly grabbed at a few phone recorders as if they were gifts for him. On Wednesday at the Balewadi Stadium, the calmness and serenity reflected on court, as he overcame a mid-match blip to beat Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 and enter the singles last eight at the Tata Open Maharashtra. Carballes Baena, admirably, refused to roll over and even earned two breakpoints in the seventh game. Earlier in the day, the second-seeded Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp weathered a stiff challenge from the Italian qualifier Flavio Cobolli 7-5, 6-4, but the tournament’s third and fourth seeds, Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori and Argentina’s Sebastian Baez respectively, crashed out.