74 years between them and memories

Two veterans with opposite styles, who will come out on top?

We’ve got a real crafty-veteran matchup here. I was in the stands at Roland for their first clash in the qualifiers back in 2007 (!), doesn’t make me feel any younger…

Emotional sequence over, time for the match.

We’ve got two players here with fairly similar recent trajectories, since they both fought their way back into the top 100, but for different reasons. Cilic was injured for a long time, then gradually came back with a strong grass-court season before slowing down a bit. Same thing for Manna, who went through a huge confidence crisis, then put together a big grass season and rode that momentum through the summer before really tailing off at the very end of the season.

In terms of match-up, we’ve got Cilic who will try to dictate the rallies with his serve–forehand combo, which is still very effective despite a real drop-off in his movement since his return. On the other side, Mannarino will try to absorb the Croatian’s power and drag him into longer patterns. So I imagine a scenario where the Frenchman will first have to hang in there before possibly turning things around.

The head-to-head is very old: 3–1 Cilic, but 1–0 Mannarino on hard, in one of his finest wins, since it allowed him to play the only 500 final of his career in Tokyo.

First match of the season, lots of uncertainty and therefore a lot of caution from a betting perspective.