MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The Australian Open continued to be an unhappy hunting ground for Marin Cilic on Friday as the former U.S. Open champion perished in the third round in a 6-4 7-6(5) 7-5 defeat by Roberto Bautista Agut.

The Croatian 12th seed fired down 15 aces and belted 46 winners but that was not enough to topple his Spanish rival, who capitalised on Cilic’s 55 unforced errors to equal his best showing at Melbourne Park.

Since reaching the semi-finals at the Open in 2010, Cilic has failed to make it past the fourth round and will be disappointed that he missed out on a last 16 showdown with either Australian firecracker Nick Kyrgios or Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych.

(Writing by Pritha Sarkar; Editing by Alison Williams)