The Swiss Indoors in Basel boasts a loaded field and the action gets underway immediately on Monday, when No. 3 seed Marin Cilic will have to hit the ground running against the up-and-coming Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
This will be the first meeting between the two big hitters. Ordinarily, Cilic would be the prohibitive favorite. The world No. 6 had an impressive run to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open in early September and he owns 18 career titles, with at least one a year since 2008. At age 19, Shapovalov has yet to breakthrough with a tournament win. Yet despite these statistics, this is not a sure thing for the Croat.
Cilic has positively limped along since the U.S. Open. He has zero match wins in his last two events; losses have come to Jan-Lennard Struff (world No. 56) and Nicolas Jarry (ranked 48th).
Shapovalov has played a lot of tennis this fall. Basel marks his sixth tournament since mid-September, which he has contested with varying degrees of success. His best result came in Tokyo, where he reached the semifinals. The Canadian played in Stockholm last week but was ousted in the second round by eventual finalist Ernests Gulbis.
Cilic has the necessary tools to dispatch Shapovalov, but he will need to maintain focus. His recent losses were both close matches, with Cilic falling just short in the deciding set.
Cheryl pick: Cilic in 3
Ricky pick: Cilic in 2
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