DAWN VICTORY
29-year-old Marin Cilic converts 8th match point at US Open and eventually edged Alex de Minaur after 2:22 a.m., as their third-round match started after 10 p.m. because of day-session matches that ran long Saturday.
New York — Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, needed eight match points to recover from a two-set deficit and eventually edged 19-yearold Alex de Minaur 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 at 2:22 a.m. on Sunday, four minutes shy of the latest finish in the tournament’s history.
“This is a moment to remember, absolutely,” Cilic said.
As for de Minaur’s state of mind afterward?
“Not going to lie: Pretty devastated,” he said.
The No. 7 seed Cilic and 45th-ranked de Minaur didn’t even start their third-round match at Louis Armstrong Stadium until after 10 p.m., because of day-session matches that ran long Saturday.
Less than 1 1/2 hours in, Cilic double-faulted to get broken for the fifth time in 10 service games and fall into that big hole. This was the sixth time in his career that the 29-yearold Croat won a match after dropping the opening two sets.
De Minaur was playing brilliantly, showing how speed can overcome power by racing this way and that along the baseline, showing off terrific instincts and reflexes.
But Cilic worked his way back into the match, serving better as it wore on and using the experience that has carried him to runner-up finishes at Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open this January, in addition to his Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows.
De Minaur, meanwhile, was playing in a third-round match at a major for only the second time and has now lost both.
“A great learning experience for me,” the Australian called it.
The match had appeared to definitively swing Cilic’s way when he ran off four games in a row to go ahead 5-2.
He held five match points in the next game as de Minaur served, but couldn’t convert any.