Marinko Matosevic may not be a household name in Australian sport – as a tennis player comes, he is ranked 55th in the world and hasn’t made any real impact on the sport.
However, Marinko has built momentum over the last two years and with another quarterfinal appearance in Delray Beach, may we be seeing a rise in another Australian tennis player?
Matosevic reached the quarterfinals at Delray Beach against compatriot and veteran Lleyton Hewitt.
Hewitt was forced to retire after the first set, which Matosevic won 7-6(2). This is now his third quarterfinal of 2014 after Brisbane and Sydney in his first two tournaments of the year.
Throughout his career, Marinko has struggled to put up consistent performances throughout tournaments and hasn’t yet won a first round match at a major.
His Australian Open was cut again short this year, after he played a gallant match, losing in five sets to Japanese young gun Kei Nishikori.
After that Marinko was dealt a major setback after not being selected for the Davis Cup team to go to France. Captain Pat Rafter decided to go with the younger generation, taking Nick Kygrios, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson all ahead of him.
This was clearly hard to take from Marinko’s perspective, especially since he had a very tough draw in the Australian Open and had shown promising form in matches beforehand.
Marinko has now bounced back again and has a real opportunity to develop his tennis in the coming week at Delray Beach, a place where he made his first ATP tour final last year.
At six foot four and 86kg, Marinko plays a very strong baseline game, where he likes to dictate points early using his forehand to his advantage.
Coached by the famous Mark Woodforde, last year he was up-and-down in terms of his ranking. After starting at 49th in the world, Marinko advanced into the top 40 with his great performance in Las Vegas, before falling to 83rd midway through the year.
He bounced back well to end the season at 61st and with this performance in America he could again advance inside the top 50.
His next opponent is Kevin Anderson, the tall, big-serving South African with a solid game and the fourth seed in the tournament.
Matosevic however should take pride and confidence out of his last two encounters, and will be physically in a fine condition after playing just three sets so far in the tournament.
This tournament and this year are very important to Marinko, as he and his team are keen to show to Australia just how good he really is.
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