At this rate Marin Cilic can not stay under the radar much longer. The big-serving Croat is back in the US Open semi-finals after a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4 win over France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Tuesday afternoon, a result that should finally serve notice that last year’s surprise run to the title was no fluke. He has now won 12 straight matches on the blue hard courts of Flushing Meadows and can book a return trip to the final with one more win on Friday, against either the No1 seed Novak Djokovic or the No18 Feliciano Lopez, who meet in the night session.
As much as Cilic’s surprise run last year caught the sport unawares, the defending champion has made even more surreptitious progress in his title defence.
But the Croatian had won five of his six career meetings with Tsonga, including the last three in straight sets. And it looked as if this would be more of the same. Late in the first set Tsonga was broken for the first time in 63 service games at this year’s tournament. When the Frenchman double-faulted on break point at 2-2 in the second and slumped dejectedly back to his chair, the match seemed all but a handshake away.
But after a medical timeout ahead of the third set, Tsonga appeared a different player. He finally broke Cilic at 3-4 in the third set, consolidating the break in the next game to force a fourth.
Serving at 4-5, 0-30 in the fourth, Tsonga uncorked a 132mph ace but sprayed a forehand wide on the next point to find himself double match-point down. With a half-full Ashe Stadium rallying behind him, he rattled off four straight points for the hold. He saved a third match-point at 4-5, 30-40 when Cilic netted a backhand drop shot, then rattled off a pair of winners to force a fourth-set tie-break, which he capped with a 129mph ace out wide to force a decider. “Big mental fight, especially after losing that fourth set.” Cilic said. “Having those three match points. Jo just come up with amazing shots.”
Tsonga, who handed Roger Federer his first career loss from two sets ahead in the 2011 Wimbledon quarter-final, is no stranger to flailing his way out of an emergency. But Cilic had never lost in 47 career matches when holding a two-set lead and the Croatian had no intention of breaking that run.
Serving at 2-2, Tsonga fell behind love-30 and sprayed a forehand wide to fall behind triple break point. Cilic needed only one, when Tsonga erred off the forehand side again.
It got nervy in the 10th game of the fifth when Cilic double-faulted on a fourth match point, but when Tsonga overcooked a forehand on match point after three hours and 59 minutes, it was over.
