Alexander Zverev vs. Marin Cilic 2018 ATP Finals Tennis Pick, Preview, Odds, Prediction

Alexander Zverev and Marin Cilic meet in the round robin stages of the 2018 tennis ATP Finals.

Alexander Zverev is coming off a quarterfinal loss in Paris and has won eight of his last 11 matches overall. Zverev went from being the inconsistent youngster who would struggle with enforced errors to making consistent deep runs in tournaments and a threat to win any event he’s joined. Zverev is a real threat to win this tournament as long as he brings the effort with his return and doesn’t rely solely on his serve to bail him out. While still young, Zverev has proven he belongs here with his body of work this year. Zverev has won five of his last seven matches on indoor hard court.

Marin Cilic is coming off a quarterfinal loss in Paris and has lost five of his last eight matches overall. Cilic simply isn’t playing well right now, and a lot of it has to do with a poor second serve and getting little to nothing with his return. We know the player Cilic is capable of being when in good form, so he can’t be counted out, but you can make a strong argument there’s not a player in this field in worse form than the 30-year-old Croatian. Cilic has to get his serve in order, and the rest of his game should start to fall in place. Cilic has split his last six matches on indoor hard court.

These two have played six times and Zverev has won five of those matches. The most recent meeting was in this years Rome Masters, a match Zverev won in straight sets. Cilic’s only win over Zverev came in the 2015 Citi Open, the first ever meeting. Three of the six matches have gone the distance. 

Even if Cilic was playing well, you’d have to give Zverev the edge based on his consistency and the ridiculous h2h advantage. The fact Cilic isn’t playing well and has lost five of his last eight matches, it makes Zverev the easy play here.

Zverev beats Cilic for the sixth straight time.