Coming into the match, the second round matchup between 9th seed Croat Marin Cilic, who is coming off a U.S. Open win and a quarterfinal appearance last year, and 90th-ranked Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis appeared to be a minor obstacle to Cilic returning to the second week of Wimbledon. However, to everyone’s surprise, the Croat would have to battle for five sets to defeat his determined foe.
From the first few service games, Cilic displayed his confidence by going all out on his serves and groundstrokes breaking Berankis in his second service game. Cilic continued to hit the ball, erratically, hitting decisive winners and disappointing errors in consecutive points throughout the set. Fortunately for the higher seed, Berankis matched him error for error and was unable to get into any rhythm. In his final game of the set, Berankis seemed to gain some confidence and was able to use his superior speed to some winners and gain a bit of a foothold in the match. Despite this, the higher seed was able to hit 15 winners to Berankis' 5 to seal the first set.
Carrying his momentum into the second set, Berankis began to dictate points, making his opponent move around the court and winning his service games with little difficulty. While the lower seed began to find his game, his opponent began to stagnate. After continuing on serve for the first nine games, Berankis elevated his game further by breaking Cilic with a heavy down the line backhand to take the second set six games to four.
With Berankis stealing the second set, Cilic sought to step his game up and began hitting the ball with pace and accuracy. With both players hitting their groundstrokes and serving well, the match continued on serve with little opportunity for either player to break his opponent’s serve. Because of this equivalency in their games, both players proceeded into the tiebreak with an equal chance of seizing the set. In the tiebreak, the level of play increased with Berankis hitting the lines on his groundstrokes and Cilic pounding his serve and any forehands he could. After hitting the ball cleanly for twelve points and earning a 6-6 score in the tiebreak, Berankis hit a forehand just outside the baseline, allowing Cilic to close out the set with a heavy serve and forehand combination.
Although Cilic seemed to gain control of the match with his win of the third set, Berankis entered the fourth set with confidence and forced Cilic to improve his play in the opening game. In fact, the Lithunian was able to force the break in the first game of the set. With Cilic unable to capitalize, the underdog continued to hit with authority and broke again in the fifth game. With a fifth set clearly in sight, all that was left was for Berankis to close out the set. Unfortunately for the Lithuanian, he relaxed a bit and could not continue his strong play throughout the set. As a result, Cilic was able to regain some momentum by stealing one break back in the match at 5-2. Despite this, Berankis, surprisingly, out aced Cilic five to two to close out the fourth set.
With the match tied at two sets apiece, the match appeared to be available for either man to take. After nearly giving up a break in his first service game, Berankis regrouped and was ready to challenge Cilic for the match. With both players competing at a high level and neither getting a chance of a break, the match looked like it could go on for a while. With the Croat serving at five games apiece, it seemed like the standstill was going to come to an end. Cilic nearly gave up the break, though managed to recover. To the dismay of Lithuanian tennis fans, the nerves seemed to get to Berankis as he fumbled the 12th game with a double fault match point down (challenge showed it was a millimeter out) and handed the set, 7-5, and the match, 6/3, 4/6, 7/6, 4/6, 7/5 to Cilic .
After undergoing five sets of potential defeat, Cilic was ecstatic to escape defeat by the young Lithuanian. For Berankis, challenging and nearly beating a Grand Slam champion will provide a lot of confidence for him in the future and will allow him to capitalize on his potential. With his heavy backhand and speed, somewhat similar to that of Nishikori, the future is bright for the 90th-ranked man. In his next match, Cilic will face the American, John Isner, in a battle of big men.