Marin Čilić's losing run stretched on with another first-round exit, this time at the ATP 250 tournament in Almaty. The Croatian, ranked 84th in the world, fell on the indoor hard courts to Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who sits well below him at 128. The result marked Čilić's fourth straight defeat on the ATP Tour. It was also the third tournament in a row where he has gone out in the opening round. Basilashvili, once a top-20 player himself, has been through his own dry spell, so the match pitted two struggling veterans against each other. Čilić, the 2014 US Open champion, has been working to rebuild his ranking after injuries and a long break from the game. Losing to a lower-ranked opponent on a surface he normally likes cost him a genuine chance to bank points. He will now have to regroup as the indoor season continues.