Marin Cilic will face Kei Nishikori in a quarter-final rematch of the 2014 US Open final after a convincing straight-sets routing of Belgian David Goffin at Flushing Meadows on Monday. Having emerged victorious from two sets down in a four-hour battle to deny #NextGenATP Aussie Alex De Minaur in his previous match, there were few such problems for the No. 7 seed against Goffin.
A champion at Flushing Meadows four years ago, the Croatian had lost 11 of his past 12 matches against Top 10 opponents but against the No. 10 in the ATP Rankings he ran out a 7-6(6), 6-2, 6-4 victory. Despite falling behind a break of serve in the opening game of the match, Cilic soon settled and began to find his rhythm against the recent Western & Southern Open semi-finalist.
The Croatian managed to break as Goffin served for the set at 5-4 and it proved the turning point of the match. Having forced the tie-break, Cilic secured the opening set on his second set point when the Belgian wildly misfired on a backhand down the line.
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Despite only landing 33 per cent of his first serves midway through the second set, Cilic still he managed to fend off break points to hold for 4-2 and after that escape he rammed home the advantage, cracking a crisp crosscourt backhand winner to secure the double break and served it out when Goffin fired long on the return.
Surging comfortably towards a quarter-final berth, Cilic received a time violation warning when serving for the match at 5-4, 0-30, but it merely served to fire him up. He thumped back-to-back aces and steadied to whip a crosscourt forehand winner on his third match point.
Nishikori will carry an 8-6 FedEx ATP Head2Head lead into the quarter-final showdown. The Japanese No. 21 seed claimed their most recent clash in a quarter-final on clay in Monte-Carlo this season.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2MHgKNP
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