Cilic against Norway

Budkov Kjaer in the first round and now his big brother Ruud...

I was really impressed by Cilic in his first round. Great serving, big forehands, solid backhands, and a fantastic composure like he tends to have! Budkov Kjaer definitely has a lot of talent, solid from both wings with a nasty backhand down-the-line. However, there are two things I want to point out in Cilic's win: Budkov Kjaer was serving only 46% of first serves and pointed toward his shoulder at the start... and that Cilic's experience and ball-bouncing before each serve drives the youngsters crazy. Now, the matchup against Ruud will be tougher. Casper can match Cilic in most departments, and on these slower courts, it becomes harder for Cilic to rush him. Cilic also rarely goes toward the net, so he will need to win this battle from the baseline. For Cilic, at least, he can find some comfort in that Ruud does not really have a great record here. He lost a year ago in straight sets to Griekspoor, who has the same Big Server / Attacking Baseliner playstyle as Cilic, but he does serve slightly better and also tends to come to the net a lot more. I'm a bit wary of Casper when he is playing Båstad and Stockholm. On paper, the conditions are great for him... slow! However, it feels like sometimes he tends to be a bit distracted... he is closely tied to these tournaments with contracts (due to the lack of top-ranked Swedish players, especially) and there is a lot of PR and other stuff here. And if he has a lack of focus, the slow conditions can work against him since he has a lot more decisions to make due to longer rallies ;)