Tennis
2026-01-22 - Denis Shapovalov vs Marin Cilic
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis : Australian Open Second Round
Thursday 22nd January 2025 - Scheduled 11am
12am (British Time)
Preview
Two former top ten Ranked players meet in the Second Round at the Australian Open after coming through opening matches with something to spare.
These days Denis Shapovalov is trying his best to get back into the top 20, while the veteran Marin Cilic is 37 years old and the World Number 70.
Marin Cilic is also a former US Open Champion and a beaten Finalist both at Wimbledon and right here at the Australian Open. He has reached the Fourth Round three times since the Final, but Marin Cilic has been dealing with injury in the latter part of his career and he had missed two of the last three Australian Open tournaments and had suffered a First Round defeat in the other.
He did not drop a game in the first two sets against Daniel Altmaier, but Marin Cilic has to expect this to be a much tougher match.
Prior to that victory, Marin Cilic had played ten matches against top 50 Ranked opponents on the hard courts over the last twelve months and had been beaten eight times. His numbers remain poor against the better players on the Tour, especially on this surface, and that is going to be a tough bridge to gap, even against someone who has been a little inconsistent as Denis Shapovalov has been.
The main reason Denis Shapovalov has been able to avoid slipping too far behind the top 20 in the World Rankings has been a solid year on the hard courts.
One of the main areas of improvement that were needed was on the return of serve and he showed some of that last season, while Denis Shapovalov has also made sure he has not been beaten too many times in matches that he should win.
In the last twelve months, the Canadian has won seventeen of twenty hard court matches played against opponents Ranked outside the top 50- his return numbers have been impressive in those matches and that may be the difference for Denis Shapovalov against this veteran.
They have not faced one another since August 2020 on the hard courts, but Denis Shapovalov won the last three between himself and Marin Cilic on this surface. He will have plenty of respect for the opponent standing across the net, but Shapovalov should be the stronger player at this stage of the respective careers and can find the tennis needed to secure passage in three or four sets.
Prediction
Look for the younger player to come through before the need for a decider against the former Australian Open Finalist.
The Pick :
Denis Shapovalov 3-1 Marin Cilic
