ATP Tour

Cilic makes winning return to 's-Hertogenbosch, rallies past Shapovalov

Marin Cilic made a thrilling start to his Libema Open campaign on Monday, when he rallied from the brink to outlast Denis Shapovalov 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5 in the opening round. The 37-year-old is competing at the grass-court ATP 250 event in 's-Hertogenbosch for the first time since 2017, when he reached the semi-finals.

"So many ups and downs today," Cilic said. "He [Shapovalov] was definitely the better player for the first set and a half. But I just stayed in there, found my game, started to play better."

After dropping the first set and trailing 2-4 in the second, Cilic reeled off four consecutive games to force a decider. The Croatian then denied Shapovalov the chance to close out the match at 5-4 in the third set before sealing the comeback victory in two hours and 43 minutes. Cilic finished having converted seven of the 10 break points he carved, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

With the triumph, the Croatian took a 4-3 lead in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Cilic, who made his tour-level debut in 's-Hertogenbosch in 2007, is now the third-oldest match winner in tournament history, following Dick Norman in 2009 and Ivo Karlovic in 2017 (both 38 years and 3 months old when they became the oldest match winners).

The former No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Cilic will next face Nuno Borges. Borges, the 2025 quarter-finalist, defeated Terence Atmane 6-4, 6-4 in 66 minutes to advance to the second round. Atmane was competing in his first tour-level match on grass courts.

In other action at the ATP 250 Monday, fifth seed Ugo Humbert cruised past Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer 6-4, 6-2 in 62 minutes to set a second-round clash with countryman Benjamin Bonzi. Bonzi defeated 18-year-old Mees Rottgering 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.