Alcaraz storms home to cull Cilic in Doha
WORLD number three Carlos Alcaraz won 14 of the last 19 points in the match against Croatian veteran Marin Cilic to book his spot in the 2025 Qatar Open Round of 16. Alcaraz is top seed at the ATP500 event, with the Spaniard securing a 6-4 6-4 triumph in an hour and 40 minutes on Centre Court to secure his place in the second round.
With Jannik Sinner suspended for three months and Alexander Zverev opting to start the clay court circuit early, Alcaraz entered Doha as strong favourite for the title. While Cilic is far past his best years that yielded him a US Open title, the tricky veteran still posed a problem and had three break points at 4-3 up in the second set.
From that moment though, Alcaraz clicked into gear and held serve, then broke Cilic and served out the match in dominant fashion to secure the straight sets victory and await either Zhizhen Zhang or qualifier Luca Nardi in the Round of 16.
Alcaraz won 70 per cent of his first serve points off a 63 per cent clip, and saved all bar one break point throughout the match. He converted three himself, and was able to out-ace Cilic four to three, while only hitting seven less winners (17-24). More importantly, the top seed Spaniard hit 16 less unforced errors through the match as well.
“I’m really pleased about saving that game and giving myself the opportunity to [stay] alive,” Alcaraz said post-match of that crucial game. “Marin puts a lot of pressure when you’re serving, he’s a great returner. I’m really happy to stay calm in that moment, do my routine and make good shots. I’m really happy to win in two sets.”
Just the five matches took place on day one of the ATP500 event, with Czech Jiri Lehecka defeating Bulgarian seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-4. Dimitrov was returning from injury but could not find a way past Lehecka in the opening round match, while eighth seed Jack Draper accounted for Australian Alexei Popyrin.
In the unseeded matches, Hungarian Fabian Marozsan took care of Tunisian wildcard Aziz Dougas 7-5 6-3, while Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell survived two tiebreakers to the score of 9-7 and 7-3 to win 7-6 7-6 against Lebanese wildcard Hady Habib. Top ranked Australian Alex de Minaur begins his campaign tonight against Russian Roman Safiullin at 10:30pm AEDST.
2025 QATAR OPEN ATP500 – ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:
[1] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) defeated Marin Cilic (CRO) 6-4 6-4
Jiri Lehecka (CZE) defeated [7] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 6-4 6-4
[8] Jack Draper (GBR) defeated Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 6-2 7-6
Fabian Marozsan (HUN) defeated [WC] Aziz Dougaz (TUN) 7-5 6-3
[Q] Christopher O’Connell (AUS) defeated [WC] Hady Habib (LEB) 7-6 7-6
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