A Grand Slam champion received a wild card to play the Argentina Open

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Croatian Marin Cilic, former world number 3, was invited to play in the main draw of the 24th edition of the Argentina Open, which will be held from February 10 to 18 at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.

Cilic, champion of the 2014 US Open, will play for the first time on the clay of Buenos Aires and will be one of the three Grand Slam champions present along with the Swiss Stan Wawrinka (winner of the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 Roland Garros and the US Open 2016) and the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (US Open 2022 and Wimbledon 2023).

Marin Čilić 🇭🇷 will play the IEB+ Argentina Open 2024 🏆

The Croatian is the third guest to compete in the main draw of the twenty-fourth edition of the competition that will be held from February 10 to 18 at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club 🏟️

🎟️ https://t.co/I0Q9ZP4afY pic.twitter.com/7lOTseyJbr

— IEB+ Argentina Open (@ArgentinaOpen) January 25, 2024

After a 2023 that kept him away from the courts due to an injury to his right knee, Marin Cilic returned to the courts at the beginning of this year at the ATP 250 in Hong Kong. He lost in the first round against the German Struff in a tight 3/6, 7/6 and 7/6 and then in the R1 of the Australian Open he failed against the Hungarian Fabian Marozsan (6/1, 2/6, 6/ 2 and 7/5).

The former number 3 in the ATP ranking, 35 years old, has not won a title since November 2021, when he became champion of the ATP 250 in Saint Petersburg. In addition to celebrating at the 2014 US Open, the Croatian – with 20 titles in his professional career – won the Cincinnati Masters 1000 in 2016, was Davis Cup champion in 2018 and reached the finals at Wimbledon (2017) and the Australian Open (2018).

The presence of Cilic adds more hierarchy to a competition that already had the confirmations of Carlos Alcaraz, Stan Wawrinka, the British Cameron Norrie, the young Frenchman Arthur Fils and the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo, among others.