Marin Cilic says that he is looking forward to playing Juan Del Potro in the Davis Cup final this weekend. Croatia take on Argentina in the final and Cilic gets the event underway with the opening singles rubber, against Federico Delbonis.
The second rubber sees Del Potro taking on the big serving Ivo Karlovic, aged 37.
There is little or nothing between the two teams and hence our passionate fans can make all the difference. Marin Cilic
Saturday sees the doubles with Franko Skugor and Ivan Dodigagainst set to take on Leonardo Mayer and Guido Pella and the final comes to a head on Sunday with Cilic due to play Del Potro.
Both are former US Open champions and, though Del Potro is well down the ATP world rankings, at 38, that is solely due to having missed so much of the past few years due to injury.
The Argentine leads Cilic 8-2 in head-to-head meetings on the circuit and demonstrated his ability to getting through to the final of the Rio Olympics where he was beaten to the gold medal by Andy Murray. Cilic is pleased to see him back on the ATP circuit.
He said: “Del Potro and I have known each other for a very long time. He is a great player and a very nice person. We always get along very well on the ATP World Tour and he is a very positive character for world tennis.”
Croatia have won the Davis Cup once before, in 2005 when they beat Slovakia 3-2, but Argentina have never lifted the trophy, having been beaten finalists four times.
Their most recent appearance in the final was in 2011 when they were beaten 3-1 by Spain. Del Potro played in that final, losing his singles rubbers to David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal.
Cilic meanwhile, hopes that home advantage can prove decisive this time, with the final taking place in Zagreb.
“There is little or nothing between the two teams and hence our passionate fans can make all the difference,” he added.
Cilic is 50/1 to win the first Grand Slam of 2017, the Australian Open. Defending champion Novak Djokovic is 6/4 while world number one Andy Murray is priced at 6/4.
Source: bet365.com
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