LONDON, Nov. 12 -- Alexander Zverev maintained his good record against Marin Cilic to beat the Croatian 7-6(5) 7-6(1) in their opening match of the ATP finals in London on Tuesday.
Zverev, who has been working with Ivan Lendl in the run up to London, had the edge of Cilic in a tight match which was decided on two tie-breaks.
The German struggled with his forehand at times in the first set and was broken by Cilic in his fist service game and when Cilic held his serve, he raced into a 3-0 lead.
However, Zverev kept his nerve and got a vital break back in the ninth game of the set, which then went into a tie break as both players were able to hold their respective serves.
Zverev took a 6-3 lead in the play-off to give himself three set points, and although Cilic defended the first two, Zverev drew him into the net before beating him with a backhand passing shot to take the first set 7-6 (5).
The second set went with serve until the 7th game when Cilic broke Zverev, only for Zverev to break directly back and he was close to a decisive break when 30-40 up in the 10th game, only for Cilic to show real guts to save the match-point with an ace before serving out to make it 5-5.
The second set also went to a tie-break after Cilic again kept his cool in the longest rally of the match, but he had no answer to Zverev, who again upped his game in the play-off to win the match in 2 hours and 6 minutes.