Cilic to face Ruud in French Open semis

| June 2, 2022

Marin Cilic has dominated a fifth-set tiebreaker against Russian Andrey Rublev to advance to his first French Open semi-final.

The 2014 US Open champion won 5-7 6-3 6-4 3-6 7-6 (10-2) in a match that lasted more than four hours on Court Philippe Chatrier on Wednesday.

Rublev has now failed to get out of five quarter-finals at major tournaments, though he was applauded for two acts of sportsmanship that helped his opponent during the match.

The 33-year-old Cilic will now face eighth seed Casper Ruud after the Norwegian ended the fairytale run of Holger Rune to reach his first grand slam semi-final.

Danish teenager Rune had accounted for Wimbledon semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov and fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas during a breakout fortnight, but he found Ruud too hot to handle in a a 6-1 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 defeat.

With his win, the 20th-seeded Cilic became the first Croatian man to reach the semi-finals at all four grand slams and he’s also just the fifth active men’s player to achieve that feat after Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

A 2018 Australian Open finalist the last time he reached a grand slam semi, Cilic reached used his big serve to win key points, recording 33 aces.

There were just four service breaks in the match, with Rublev forcing a decider by breaking Cilic’s serve for a 5-3 lead in the fourth set.

In the first-to-10 tiebreaker, Cilic fell behind 2-1 before winning the next nine points, clinching it on the Russian’s backhand return into the net.

Earlier in the breaker, Rublev indicated that a Cilic shot was in and at one-all in the fifth set, the seventh seed volunteered to replay the first point of the game after Cilic’s shot was ruled out.

After their slugfest, Cilic applauded Rublev’s sportsmanship.

“Andrey played incredibly well, it was an incredibly fair-play performance on the court,” he said.

“The win comes from being me, I played that kind of tennis the whole match. Especially the fifth set was an incredible battle.

“A lot of heart. One had to go down and today was my day. But Andrey also played an incredible match. Bad luck to him.

“I felt more tired emotionally out there because Andrey plays a difficult game, he serves big, hits big, and you don’t have many chances.

“You have to keep up with your level, which I did. Unfortunately, I lost that fourth set. I thought I was close to getting the break.

“When you play this long, there will always be ups and downs in the match but I kept my focus in the fifth.”