Hello, Old Friend...

I'm sure this is not the opponent Cilic wanted for his second round...

Well, Cilic got his win. It turned out that Basilashvili was quite a good opponent for him to face at this time. Cilic was serving really well, and the fact that he takes his time to serve by bouncing the ball 30 times seemed like it actually kind of bothered Basilashvili, who is not the most patient player (come on, just serve already). Cilic was able to capitalize on a slow start in set 1 and shut the door in the set 2 tiebreak when Basilashvili was starting to get into the match. A good win, but how much will it matter? Because the guy he is facing next has beaten him 19 times, and the matchup is not a good one. Cilic has the same struggles as Fritz does against Djokovic, really... both of them are Big Servers / Attacking Baseliners who are consistent and mentally strong. However, they lack variety, and their pace is absorbed by Djokovic, and their movement (which is not elite) is then exploited. That's how the story goes most of the time, unless they are having an amazing serving day combined with a subpar Djokovic. Well, now it's a first round and it's not a Grand Slam, so we have to figure out Novak's motivation and intensity here from the start. I do think we see a good effort from Djokovic in this tournament, especially with Alcaraz having pulled out and Sinner having played a full week before... he might have a shot here! We know that he likes the conditions and that he likes China as well. Sure, he hasn't played in a while... but he's used to that. So, perhaps the real question is, will he show some kind of mercy to a good friend of his? Djokovic won't be bothered by Cilic's ball-bouncing, he's seen it before and is quite familiar with it himself ;)