London July 2 (IANS) Marin Cilic of Croatia the 2017 finalist on Monday defeated Japan s Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1 6-4 6-4 in the first round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Third-seed Cilic needed one hour and 46 minutes to beat his World No. 256 Japanese opponent and advance to the second round of the grass-court Grand Slam event reports Efe.
The 2018 Queen s Club champion fired 21 aces to make a comfortable straight-set win and reach the second round and has not lost any of his six grass-court matches this season.
World No. 5 Cilic is set to play the second round against the winner of the match between World No. 82 Guido Pella of Argentina and Australia s World no. 147 Jason Kubler.

--IANS kk/vm