It was crazy, admits Cilic, as he shakes off Fognini

Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Cilic, both former US Open champions, are through to the quarter-finals of the French Open.

Cilic, runner-up at the Australian Open in January, was up two sets and seemingly cruising against Fabio Fognini before the hard-to-dislodge Italian took the next two sets, saving a match point along the way.

The third-seeded Cilic ultimately prevailed 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3.

“Just a crazy match,” said the Croatian, a quarter-finalist in Paris last year, too. “It was just hanging by a thread. A couple of points decided it.”

Del Potro, Cilic’s next opponent, had a more straightforward 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win against big-serving John Isner, who served 12 aces but fell short of becoming the first American man to reach the quarterfinals since Andre Agassi in 2003, despite hopeful chants of “U-S-A!, U-S-A!” from the crowd.

“I was outplayed by a large margin,” Isner said. “I would have liked to maybe put up a better fight.”

The 11th-seeded Diego 0 Juan Martin del Potro: Beat the big-serving John Isner. Schwartzman rallied to beat Kevin Anderson 1-6, 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (0), 6-2.

Anderson twice served for the match, at 5-4 in the third and fourth sets but Argentine Schwartzman prevailed to reach his first Roland Garros quarter-final.

His opponent in the last eight will be record-breaking ten-time French Open winner Rafael Nadal who will be competing in his 12th Paris quarter-final.

The only other player with that many in the professional era is Novak Djokovic, who plays his 12th quarter-final, against Marco Cecchinato of Italy this afternoon.

The other last-eight tie today sees Dominic Thiem of Austria take on German second seed Alexander Zverev. 0 Marin Cilic: Seemed to be cruising against Fabio Fognini.