Marin Cilic shakes off tiredness to defend his Zagreb title

MARIN Cilic says he will be fit and raring to go at this week's PBZ Zagreb Indoors event following his run to the semi-finals at last week's Australian Open.

Cilic defeated Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Roddick on his way to the last four in Melbourne before losing out to Andy Murray. The Croatian was the biggest mover in the world rankings yesterday, going up four places to No10, and he is due to return to action in Zagreb tomorrow.

"I arrived on Saturday and got some rest, but the most important thing was not to get lazy," said Cilic yesterday when asked if he had fully recovered from the Australian Open. "It will be all under control on Wednesday."

Last year Cilic won early-season tournaments in Zagreb and Chennai and then reached the fourth round of the Australian Open. This year he has already won in Chennai and progressed further in Melbourne, so he is looking forward to trying to defend his title in Zagreb.

"The season has started better then I expected," added Cilic. "For the first time in my career I had to defend an ATP title in Chennai and the pressure on me was higher than usual. I gained extra experience at the Australian Open and I am more than satisfied with the level of my game. My tennis against Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Roddick was great."

On moving into the top ten in the world, Cilic said: "Nothing has changed so far. I still want to advance, to play better, to learn something new during every practice session. By reaching top ten I took some pressure off my back but I still have goals."

Cilic practiced with compatriot Goran Ivanisevic on Sunday. "I really think that his experience will be of great help and that I will get some very useful advice to use in my game," he explained.

The PBZ Zagreb Indoors got underway yesterday and third seed Jurgen Melzer secured safe passage through to the second round with a straight-sets victory over Daniel Brands.

The 28-year-old Austrian, who made a first round exit in this tournament 12 months ago, served for the first set at 5-3, but was broken by his German opponent. However, the world No32 quickly broke back to secure the opening set and a single break of serve in the second set was enough for him to claim a 6-4, 6-3 win.

There were also victories for Belgium's Olivier Rochus, who overcame losing the first set against Russia's Igor Kunitsyn to triumph 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, and Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin, who defeated Germany's Mischa Zverev 6-4, 6-3.

In the other first-round games Serbia's Viktor Troicki defeated Germany's Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-2, Croatian wild card Ivan Dodig defeated Kazakhstan's eighth seed Evgeny Korolev 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 and Ukrainian Illya Marchenko won 6-2, 6-4 against Italy's Simone Bolelli.