An immense Marin Cilic travels to the past in Dubai | ATP Tour

Dubai

Cilic slows the favorite No. 2 of Miñaur; and Halys, Al No. 3 Rublev in Dubai

Croatian achieves his first Top 10 victory since 2022

February 25, 2025

This Tuesday he has held great surprises at the Dubai Duty Freenis Championships. And it is that two of the three main serial heads of this ATP 500 said goodbye at its premiere.

Marin Cilic kept the second favorite Alex de Miñaur (6-2, 3-6, 6-3), completing one of his most important victories of recent times. In a match full of hard blows like iron, the Balkan surprised a world world top 10 since 2022, remembering something simple: at 36 years old, with a good touch in the ball, it is still a real danger to any adversary in the circuit.

The Croatian completed a game full of faith, compensating for the leg speed presented by the Australian with a precise glue in each exchange. Cilic took advantage of the four breakfast balls generated in the game, a whole symptom of concentration and hunger, to incline in his favor a duel that attracted enough looks in the Emirate.

“It has been a great start to me,” said Cilic, who improved the 3-2 record of the history of the ATP Head2head between them. “Win the first three games, feel comfortable on the track, with the conditions. It has not been simple, but I was really well feeling the ball. I know how dangerous Alex is. He is a real athlete on the track, responds to balls that nobody reaches. I needed to be patient but aggressive. I feel satisfied to have been able to maintain that level throughout the game. ”

Starring one of the great stories of overcoming the circuit, Cilic continues to paddle for leaving behind an injury that has threatened to park his career definitively. The Croatian underwent an operation on his right knee in early 2023 and, with the aim of repairing that same joint, went back to the operating room in May 2024. A very long journey that made him run out of place in the PIF ATP Rankings.

The merit was special for Cilic, barely landed in the second game of its 2025 season. Croatian, which competes with protected ranking in Dubai, had started the road last week on Doha’s tracks against Carlos Alcaraz, demanding two intense sleeves to four times Grand Slam champion.

“I had not had many options to settle this season,” said Cilic, who will face Alexei Popyrin in the second round. “Last week I played with Carlos in Doha, I measured Alex here. Both are Top 10 that are at high level. It is a great effort for me, a sign that I am playing well. It is a matter of time that reaches a good way. I hope I can continue in this line. ”

The love for the circuit continues to promote the Balkan to compete with the best players in the world. Last year, Cilic became the lowest ranking champion of the ATP Tour era, raising the individual title of Hangzhou as No. 777 World Cup. Now, about to be placed among the top 150 of the classification, Dubai’s slopes offer him a blank canvas on which to draw a wonderful return.

For his part, Quentin Halys registered the greatest victory of his career, after leaving out the recent champion in Doha and No. 9 of the Andrey Rublev world 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5). The Frenchman, from the previous phase, saved five break points in the 5-5 of the decisive set on his way to victory in two hours and 12 minutes.

In this way, Halys left the tournament without the third head of the series and former champion in 2022. Now, in the second round it will be measured with another racket that already knows what it is to lift the crown in Dubai: the Spanish Roberto Bautista Agut.

“I am very happy, although now I did not smile,” said Halys, after his first victory in an ATP 500. “The game was very hard. With 5-5, it was 0/40 and it almost makes me break. What a victory. I have played very well today. At the beginning I was a little nervous, but in the end quite quiet. The key was to get well, be aggressive and make incredible blows. ”

“Every time you play a 500, you measure yourself with incredible players,” Halys continued. “I lost many times, but today is the best victory of my career. I enjoyed playing here, the conditions adapt to my game. ”

But these were not the only surprises of the day in Dubai. The Portuguese Nuno Borges also overcame the eighth favorite Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-1 in just 61 minutes. It was his first triumph against a Top 20 player since last August.

In this way, at 28 he became the first player in his country to win a game in Dubai since Joao Sousa did it in 2015. Borges will cross in the second round with Felix Auger-Aliassime, who remained a great victory against Alexander Bublik 7-6 (7), 6-7 (4), 6-3.