Marin Cilic vs Fabio Fognini Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP French Open

Prediction published on 02/06/2018, 15:31  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 05/06/2018 at 03:39 in ATP French Open Predictions

Marin Cilic is ranked fourth in the world and seeded three here in the absence of Roger Federer. Despite his high seeding this hasn't been his most successful Grand Slam tournament. He's only once reached the quarter finals and that was last year when losing in straight sets to Stan Wawrinka. He has only lost one set so far in this tournament and faces an opponent who he has beaten twice in their three meetings - one on clay- but they haven't met since 2011.  On clay this year he won both of his games in the Davis Cup, reached the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo and made it through to the semi-finals in Rome.

His Italian opponent is seeded 18th and had to come back from two sets to one down to get past Kyle Edmund in the third round. He has only reached one quarter final here and that was back in 2011 but had to withdraw after failing to get over a four-hour plus fourth round match. That remains the only time he has made the last eight of a Grand Slam tournament even though he never actually made it onto court to face Novak Djokovic. This year has seen him reach the semi-final of a clay tournament held in Rio and followed that up by winning the Brazil Open but the highest ranked player he beat was Pablo Cuevas in the semi-finals who is ranked 31. His European clay season got off to a poor start with two early round defeats but he did reach the quarter finals in Rome beating Dominic Thiem before losing to Rafael Nadal but he did take a set off him. This should be an interesting last sixteeen clash and a lot depends on how Fognini recovers from his tough game on Saturday. This preview suggests you go for Cilic to get the win.