No room for error

Cilic is the defending champion but he arrives without confidence and will have to dig deep to get through.

And yes, Cilic worries me a little, he took his time playing again after Wimbledon, as a result he finds himself with a first at the US Open then two defeats in the Davis Cup and a level of play far from convincing. It was still much better against Moutet in his last match, we can hope for a rise in power from him especially since he plays well in Asia and more particularly in this tournament that he won last year. It's rather fast, the kick works quite well, these are nice conditions for him. But he will still be a challenger as he should be against the clever Basavareddy who will make him work and try to hinder him with his game. The American comes out of the qualifiers but does not beat big players, for me he holds his own and it is on this R1 that we will see where he is because he too has not been in great form for some time. He has had some decent matches recently but nothing crazy, a rise in power is also possible and given that he already has two matches under his belt (and that Cilic also has to manage surface transition + travel) it is rather logical to see him as the favorite in this match. But I don't like him at all against good servers/powerful players, he can quickly take on water and sink, I have seen him sink against this type of player several times.