Croatian Marin Cilic, former world number 3 now ranked 23rd, qualified for the Roland-Garros semi-finals on Wednesday June 1 for the first time in his career by defeating world number 7 Andrey Rublev in five sets, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2).
For a place in the final, Marin Cilic, 33, will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud (8th) or the young Dane Holger Rune, 40th in the world at 19 years old.
Cilic, winner of the 2014 US Open, thus becomes the fifth active player to have reached the last four in the four Grand Slam tournaments, along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
He is the first Croatian player to achieve such a performance.
"Emotionally Tired"
After dismissing world number 2 Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, the tall Croatian (1.98m) hit 88 winners, including 33 aces (for 71 unforced errors), to win after the very first super tie- break (in ten points) disputed on the Central of Roland-Garros, after 4 hours 10 of match.
"I'm mostly emotionally tired. When you play for so long, there are always ups and downs," Cilic said.
The other semi-final will pit Friday Rafael Nadal, thirteen times crowned on Parisian clay and Novak Djokovic's scorer in a memorable clash completed overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, to world number 3 Alexander Zverev.
With AFP
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