Cilic wins ‘big mental fight’ in five sets
Defending champ subdues Tsonga, reaches semifinals.
Pushed to a fifth set after coming so close to victory, defending champion Marin Cilic kept his act together and held on to get back to the U.S. Open semifinals.
Unfazed by wasting a big lead or match points, the ninth-seeded Cilic stretched his winning streak at Flushing Meadows to 12 matches by beating 19th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4 on Tuesday night.
“A big mental fight,” the Croatian called it, “especially after losing that fourth set.”
The quarterfinal took nearly four hours in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Cilic appeared to be heading to a relatively straightforward win after taking the first two sets, considering he was 47-0 in his Grand Slam career when up by that margin.
But Tsonga took the third set by finally converting his seventh break point of the match, and then serving it out from 15-30 by taking the last three points with a pair of service winners at 131 mph and 132 mph, followed by a 124 mph ace.
Tsonga then saved three match points in the fourth set to force a fifth.
“Jo just came up with amazing shots,” Cilic said.
In the last set, Cilic broke at love to lead 3-2, and didn’t falter this time, although he did need another two match points to close it out, doublefaulting on one before finally winning when Tsonga sailed a forehand long.
In the semifinals, Cilic will face No. 1 Novak Djokovic or No. 18 Feliciano Lopez of Spain. They were scheduled to meet in Tuesday’s last match. It was Djokovic’s 26th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal, including nine in a row at Flushing Meadows. For the 33-year-old Lopez, it was his first time making it that far in 14 U.S. Open appearances, and only his fourth career quarterfinal at any major tournament.
Cilic wore a brace on his right ankle, which he tweaked in the previous round. But it was Tsonga who appeared more troubled by an ailment, wearing a thick band of tape under his left knee.
Earlier Tuesday, Roberta Vinci, 32, reached the semifinal of a major for the first time in her career by outlasting Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
In her 44th Grand Slam tournament, Vinci has had a favorable draw — she has yet to meet a seeded opponent. In the fourth round Sunday, Vinci was scheduled to take on 25th-seeded Eugenie Bouchard, but the Canadian withdrew after sustaining a concussion when she fell in the locker room two days earlier.
“Maybe this was my tournament,” Vinci said.
In matches late Monday night, Roger Federer became the first player to shut out John Isner in a tiebreaker — and later added a rare service break of the big-serving, 6-foot-10 American, too — while winning their fourth-round match 7-6 (0), 7-6 (6), 7-5.
According to the ATP, Isner had never lost by a 7-0 score in 428 previous official tour-level tiebreakers.
“You’ve got to get a little lucky,” Federer said in an on-court interview, “but 7-love is a very good score, obviously, against John. As long as you win the ’breaker, it doesn’t matter what the score is.”
Isner called the way that tiebreaker went “surprising.”
“That was a lot on me,” Isner said, covering his face with his left hand. “He had a lot to do with that, as well.”
Federer also broke to close out the match, ending the 13th-seeded Isner’s streak of 110 consecutive service holds at Flushing Meadows over the last two years.
“The break clearly was nice, but I kind of felt it was coming,” said Federer, who went 0 for 9 on break points until converted his 10th. “He was maybe not having as much energy anymore.”
With losses by Isner and Donald Young, this is the 16th consecutive Grand Slam tournament without an American man in the quarterfinals. Isner and Andy Roddick made it that far at the 2011 U.S. Open.