Having charged to the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for the loss of just a set, Marin Cilic found a different way to win against Andrey Rublev in Paris on Wednesday afternoon.
The Croatian dug deep to seal a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(10-2) victory and reach the semi-finals at the clay-court Grand Slam for the first time. The 33-year-old is just the fifth active player to reach semi-finals of all four Grand Slams, alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
Cilic’s thrilling victory elevates him to No. 17 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, six spots higher than where he began the tournament. The Croatian, a former World No. 3, was last ranked in the Top 20 in August 2019.
Although Cilic saw a match point opportunity slip away when Rublev was serving at 4-5, 30/40 in the fifth set, the 20th seed regained his composure to claim the final-set tie-break 10/2 in spectacular style as he stepped into court to strike a series of searing winners.
“It comes from being me," said Cilic when asked about his aggressive approach to the tie-break in his on-court interview. "I played that kind of tennis the whole match, and especially the fifth set was an incredible battle. Andrey played incredibly well, and it was an incredible fair-play performance on the court.
"A lot of heart, and one had to go down. Today was my day, but Andrey also played an incredible match.”
Despite dropping a tight first set to one of the biggest ball-strikers on the ATP Tour, it was Cilic whose power-hitting came good as he manoeuvred Rublev around Court Philippe Chatrier to great effect. The Croatian fired 88 winners including 33 aces on the way to a four-hour, 10-minute victory.
“Andrey plays a difficult game," said Cilic. "Serves big, hits big. You don’t have many chances and you have to keep up with your level and I did that. Unfortunately, I lost that fourth set. I felt I was close to get the break maybe, but Andrey played really well and when you play this long it’s always going to be a little bit up and down during the match.”
The win backs up Cilic’s stunning quarter-final victory over World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev. The Croatian’s opponent in the last four will be the winner of Wednesday’s night session quarter-final between Casper Ruud and Holger Rune.
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Rublev made the early running on Court Philippe Chatrier, carving out three break points in the seventh game and two in the ninth. Cilic gave the seventh seed no chance to convert as he consistently found huge serves at key moments, but Rublev continued to hit aggressively with his return and the pressure told. Rublev broke for 6-5 and made no mistake behind serve to win his first set in five Grand Slam quarter-final appearances.
Despite the early setback, the Cilic serve continued to fire and an early break was enough to earn the Croatian the second set. The 20th seed frequently found acute angles with his groundstrokes to keep Rublev on the move, and Cilic clinched another crucial solitary break for 4-3 in the third after targeting the Rublev second serve.
Although he frequently struggled to find his free-flowing best, the composed Rublev stuck with Cilic and took his chance to break in the eighth game of the fourth set and force a decider. A tight fifth set saw few chances until Cilic missed a forehand into the net on match point at 5-4, but the Croatian made no mistake in the tie-break.
Cilic arrived at Roland Garros with a 4-4 match record for the European clay-court season, but the 2014 US Open champion has excelled in Paris, defeating Attila Balazs, Marton Fucsovics, Gilles Simon, Medvedev and Rublev to charge to the last four.
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