Pune suffers big blow as Marin Cilic withdraws from tournament
The Pune event has suffered a big blow ahead of the tournament's second edition as one of the two top-10 players confirmed for the tournament has withdrawn.
Croatian tennis star Marin Cilic won't be kicking off his 2019 campaign in the opening week of the season as he has pulled out from Pune.
Cilic featured the inaugural edition of the Pune event in January and appeared to be set to play at the Indian tournament in back-to-back years.
Cilic, ranked at No. 7 in the world, made the semi-final in his first Pune campaign.
The Croatian dominantly won the opening set of his semi-final match against eventual champion Gilles Simon but then lost the following two sets 1-6 6-3 6-2.
Cilic, who had a first-round bye in Pune, beat home-favorite Ramkumar Ramanathan and French Pierre-Hugues Herbert on his way to reaching the semi-final.
A place in the Pune main draw has opened for world No. 104 Pedro Sousa following the withdrawal of 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic.
Pune update: OUT: Cilic IN: P. Sousa Next: Auger-Aliassime
— Entry List Updates (@EntryLists) December 26, 2018
The 30-year-old Portuguese is set to make his debut appearance at the Pune event.
The 2019 Pune player field will now be highlighted by 2018 Wimbledon runner-up Kevin Anderson and 2018 Australian Open semi-finalist Hyeon Chung.
Defending champion Simon is also expected to play at the tournament.
Simon beat Anderson in the 2018 Pune final.
Also read: Lleyton Hewitt Says Alex de Minaur Has Lot of Firepower
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2AghwJq
No comments