Hangzhou Open: Cilic makes last eight

Croat wildcard Marin Cilic advanced to the last eight of the Hangzhou Open by defeating Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, the No 8 seed, 6-4, 6-1 at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center on Saturday.

Cilic, who returned to competitive tennis in August after a six-month hiatus due to knee surgery, made light work of Nishioka’s challenge. He finished the match in 70 minutes on the back of an impressive 15 aces, 32 aces, and four break point conversions.

The result meant that the former world No 3 reached his 121st tour-level quarter-final.

Marin Cilic will face the winner of the match between Dane Holger Rune, the top seed, and Japanese qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama next.

Ahead of his victory, the 35-year-old Croat won against American Zachary Svajda (5-7, 6-3, 6-0).

Nishioka, ranked No 54, won against German Maximilian Marterer (6-4, 6-2) in the previous round of the Hangzhou tournament.

Hangzhou ATP 250, other second-round results (Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, hard, USD 1.000.630, most recent results first):

• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Mattia Bellucci
• Holger Rune vs. Yasutaka Uchiyama
• Roberto Carballes Baena vs. Mitchell Krueger
• Yunchaokete Bu (WC) beat Karen Khachanov (2): 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-3
• Brandon Nakashima (4) beat Chak Lam Coleman Wong (Q): 6-7 (7), 7-6 (4), 6-1
• Rinky Hijikata vs. Fabian Marozsan
• Mikhail Kukushkin beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-4, 7-6 (3)

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Hangzhou Open: Marin Cilic gets his first ATP Tour win since January 2023

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