Marin Cilic turns back the clock as he reaches maiden Roland Garros semifinals
ATP
Marin Cilic will play in his first semi-final at the Roland Garros after he defeated Andrey Rublev in five sets.
Statistically, the Rolland Garros has been the worst Grand Slam for Cilic over the years. He reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open in 2010 and played the final in Melbourne in 2018.
In Wimbledon's All England Club, he played the final in 2017 and the Croatian won the US Open in 2014. Yet, he never got past the quarter-finals in the French capital until today.
Both players were coming into the quarter-finals in great form as Rublev previously defeated Soonwoo Kwon, Federico Delbonis, Cristian Garin, and Jannik Sinner, losing one set.
On the other hand, Cilic defeated Attila Balasz, Marton Fucsovics, Gilles Simon, and Daniil Medvedev, as he lost only one set in total during his journey. They met six times in the past, with Rublev winning on four occasions.
The last time Cilic triumphed was at the Grand Slam in Australia this year, and he managed to replicate that result, although it didn't look like that from the start.
In the first set, it was only Rublev who had break points, as he needed six to get the crucial break and win the first set 7-5. In the next two sets, the Croatian was almost unstoppable while his opponent made too many mistakes.
In the second set, Cilic hit 21 winners and made only 11 unforced errors alongside nine aces, which resulted in a 6-3 victory. He continued with an inspired play also in the third as he hit seven aces and 13 winners while his opponent hit only one winner and made 11 unforced errors, gifting him the 2-1 lead in the match.
But Rublev fought back in the fourth set as he made only three unforced errors and didn't allow his opponent to have a single break point in the set to win it 6-3.
The match reached the tie-break in the final set, which was dominated by Cilic, who won it 10-2 to reach his first Roland Garros semi-final after beating the Russian player 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2).
