Marin Cilic takes advantage of incredible lucky break to beat Fernando Verdasco

Michael Graham
Marin Cilic at Australian Open
Marin Cilic at Australian Open

Marin Cilic played his Australian Open get-out-of-jail-free card, surviving an astonishing moment to beat Fernando Verdasco in the third round.

The Croatian lost the opening two sets, and faced a match point in the fourth. Verdasco,though, inexplicably double-faulted. Three points later, Cilic had levelled the match at 2-2.

With momentum very much in his favour, he closed out a tense final set to seal an incredible 4-6 3-6 6-1 7-6(10-8)

“Thanks for sticking around, it was definitely a tough match, unbelievable,” Cilic told the crowd in his on-court interview.

“It was a big hill to climb… I’m just putting myself in a hole and let’s see what I’m going to do.”

On the defining double-fault of the match, Cilic added: “It was definitely a tough tiebreak.

“It came down to one shot, or basically one decision. I was a little bit lucky on that net cord.

“Today I was just slightly luckier in those crucial moments.”

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