Marin Cilic: 'My best tennis on clay is yet to come'
The 11th seed Marin Cilic secured the 115th Grand Slam victory, toppling Thomas Fabbiano 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 in two hours and ten minutes at the event where he played in the quarters in 2017 and 2018. Marin struggled on the second serve, hitting 32 winners and 36 errors and offering eight break chances to the Italian. Thomas converted three but that would never be enough after his performance, staying on eight winners and spraying more than 30 errors to play against 20 break points and give serve away eight times. The Croat grabbed three breaks in the opening set and had to shift into a higher gear in set number two to find the finish line, trailing 5-4 and offering Fabbiano to close the set on own serve before rattling off the last three games for a 7-5, including breaks in games ten and 12. Carried by this momentum, Marin marched towards the win in the third set, breaking Thomas three times and booking the place in the second round.
"I'm happy with my performance, especially on the first Sunday, hoping to stay in the tournament for a long time. Generally, it was a very solid performance and it was very nice to play on Lenglen court on Sunday. I enjoyed my time and felt I played well from the end of the second set until the end. I put a game into another gear, serving much better and hitting more winners, also playing a little bit more aggressive. I'm pleased with the way how I finished the match. Eight years ago, I lost here on the first Sunday and went back home by Sunday evening so that didn't feel too good.
I do like Roland Garros, I think I have improved my game on clay in the last couple of years, which is a little bit strange at this stage of my career, I think I'm yet to play my best tennis at Roland Garros and I'm looking forward to it. It is going to be a tough challenge in the second round against Grigor Dimitrov or Janko Tipsarevic (they were still on the court, heading into the fifth set), they are both great players and the winner shouldn't be tired because we are not going to play until Wednesday."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2JCe028
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