Daniil Medvedev, the world no. 2 in men’s tennis, crashed out of the French Open 2022 after being dominated by Croatian Marin Cilic.
The 33-year-old Croatian dominated the Russian in a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory to proceed to the quarter-finals. The match was as one sided as the score line suggests, and saw the 20th seeded Cilic win without facing a break point. Cilic also went on to win 90% of his first-serve points, and converted five of the seven break chances that fell his way in the one hour 45-minute-long match.
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“It was one of the best matches of my career from start to finish. An absolutely fantastic match from the first point to the last,” an exuberant Cilic said during his post match interview.
“When I’m playing my best tennis, everything is working, serve, return, movement and these last 15 days have been great for me, with some very consistent tennis. Against guys like Daniil you have to be able to sustain levels like that throughout the match so I was definitely focused to keep going and I am extremely pleased,” the 33-year-old explained.
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“I try to always give my best even if it’s not going my way. If you are persistent with your training, good things come your way and it is such a pleasure to be playing like this,” Cilic concluded, wrapping up his interview.
The win takes the Croatian to his first Grand Slam quarter-final since 2018, where he is slated to face seventh seed Andrey Rublev, who secured his spot on Monday after Italy’s Jannik Sinner retired in the third set of their fourth round tie.