Cilic, Marozsan record wins on Day 1 in Hangzhou

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marin-cilic/c977/overview'Marin Cilic/a secured his first win on the ATP Tour since January 2023 on Wednesday, finishing with a flourish to complete a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 comeback over a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zachary-svajda/s0k7/overview'Zachary Svajda/a in the first round of the inaugural a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/hangzhou/4713/overview'Hangzhou Open/a./p

pThe former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings has been hampered by injuries over the course of the past two seasons, eventually undergoing a second knee surgery in May this year. After a spell on the sidelines, Cilic returned to action on the ATP Challenger Tour last month and has worked his way back to record an impressive triumph over Svajda./p

p"It means a lot," Cilic said of his return to winning ways. "It means a lot for me, for my team who have been with me through this extremely long, boring and difficult period. Two surgeries, lots of recovery, rehab and training. [I'm] just extremely happy that I am healthy, enjoying myself on the court, and physically back to 100 per cent."/p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"A winning return ???? for a href="https://twitter.com/cilic_marin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@cilic_marin/a ????a href="https://twitter.com/HangzhouOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@HangzhouOpen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HangzhouOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#HangzhouOpen/a a href="https://t.co/CtN17wrNzj"pic.twitter.com/CtN17wrNzj/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1836400261411024932?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 18, 2024/a/blockquote

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pThe 35-year-old, who clinched his maiden Grand Slam at the 2014 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a, won 92 per cent of first-serve points in the deciding set according to Infosys ATP Stats to cruise to victory and book his spot in round two, where he will face a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/maximilian-marterer/mn13/overview'Maximilian Marterer/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yoshihito-nishioka/n732/overview'Yoshihito Nishioka/a for a place in the quarter-finals./p

pEarlier in the day, seventh seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/fabian-marozsan/m0ci/overview'Fabian Marozsan/a secured an emphatic 6-0, 6-2 win over a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/luca-nardi/n0bg/overview'Luca Nardi/a to advance in one hour, 10 minutes. The Hungarian has established himself as a persistent threat on hard courts this season and is off to a strong start in Hangzhou with a statement win, overpowering Nardi with a comfortable triumph./p

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pThe Italian Nardi produced a stellar run to defeat a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a en route to the fourth round of the ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells in March but has since been unable to record a win over a Top 50 opponent./p

pJust like Cilic, veteran a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mikhail-kukushkin/k926/overview'Mikhail Kukushkin/a also rolled back the years with a dominant display to defeat fifth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/luciano-darderi/d0fj/overview'Luciano Darderi/a 6-3, 6-4. The 36-year-old, who currently sits at No. 112 in the PIF ATP Rankings, used his craft and guile to record his first tour-level win since October 2023./p

pThe former World No. 39 will now attempt to notch his 175th tour-level win when he faces either a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-shevchenko/s0h2/overview'Alexander Shevchenko/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marco-trungelliti/ta29/overview'Marco Trungelliti/a in the second round.nbsp;/p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p