Istanbul Open: Defending champion Marin Cilic suffers shock defeat to unseeded Malek Jaziri in his opening match

Istanbul: World number four and defending champion Marin Cilic was dumped out of the clay-court ATP event in Istanbul in his first match by unseeded Tunisian Malek Jaziri on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_4456557” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Malek Jaziri celebrates after defeating Marin Cilic. Image courtesy: Twitter @istanbulopen[/caption] Former US Open champion Cilic was the top seed in Turkey, but was well-beaten 6-4, 6-2 by world number 78 Jaziri in their second-round encounter. Croatia’s Cilic, who lost in both last year’s Wimbledon final and January’s Australian Open final to Roger Federer, was playing in his first match since a defeat by Kei Nishikori at the Monte Carlo Masters two weeks ago. Jaziri will take on either Brazilian Thiago Monteiro or Czech Jiri Vesely in the quarter-finals. Results from the ATP tournament in Istanbul on Thursday (x denotes seeding): Malek Jaziri (TUN) bt Marin Cilic (CRO x1) 6-4, 6-2 Jiri Vesely (CZE x7) bt Thiago Monteiro (BRA) 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7/3) Jeremy Chardy (FRA) bt Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) bt Damir Dzumhur (BIH x2) 6-2, 0-6, 6-2