Belgrade Open: Cilic sets up Lehecka clash in second round

Former US Open champion Marin Cilic moved into the second round of the Belgrade Open by beating Frenchman Alexandre Muller 7-6 (2), 6-3 at the Belgrade Arena on Monday.

The win snapped a four-match losing streak for the 36-year-old, who had lost his opening round matches in Tokyo, Shanghai, Basel and Paris.

This is only the second ATP Tour event that Cilic has won a main draw match at; the other one was in Hangzhou where he went on to win the title in September.

Cilic, ranked No 196 in the world, will play No 4 seed Jiri Lehecka next. This will be the first meeting between the two players.

Belgrade ATP 250, other first-round matches (Belgrade Arena, hard, EUR 579,320):

• Daniel Altmaier beat Luciano Darderi (8): 7-6 (1), 6-3
• Hamad Medjedovic (WC) beat Brandon Nakashima (6): 3-6, 7-5, 6-3
• Fabian Marozsan beat Juncheng Shang: 2-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5
• Roman Safiullin vs. Fabio Fognini
• Laslo Djere vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Christopher O’Connell
• Marton Fucsovics vs. Denis Shapovalov
• Dusan Lajovic vs. Mariano Navone
• James Duckworth vs. Lukas Klein
• Branko Djuric vs. Aleksandar Kovacevic
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Pavel Kotov

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