Carlos Alcaraz reaches US Open quarterfinal with late-night win against Marin Cilic
The Spaniard made it through three sets with a late comeback in their first meeting in Miami, and now finds himself in the quarterfinals of the US Open.
Cilic rallied from 2-3 down in the fifth set and had four match points, including a break point at 5-3, but Alcaraz fought back to win in straight sets.
As predicted, Alcaraz didn’t play particularly well in the first set, but it was still a hard fought contest. Cilic found a break point in the second game of play and held it. After that it was all about defense from both players. Cilic’s hold and Alcaraz’s backhand to hold. Cilic has great backhand, and Alcaraz had to stay disciplined when it came to holding shots, and he was, but he held them better than most of the players he faced this week. So it was another battle, and a battle that both players deserved. Alcaraz got off to a good start, but Cilic was playing his best tennis in the match, and it was good to see his game come together at the right time.
Cilic looked very good under his new trainer Jose Vicente, who did a great job working with him. He’s on the court early in the day, and he makes sure that Cilic is ready to face both his opponent and himself. He plays the percentages with his every opponent, and he knows each player best. The Spaniard has had a rough week, but he hasn’t been able to show a lot of heart against players like Nishikori, Almagro, and McEnroe. It still took him until his 5th match point of the set to finally get on a roll, and by taking it to a fifth set, he was able to get to the quarterfinals, but he’ll come out of the quarterfinals looking to win a major next week.
The Americans were all over John Isner at the start of the second set, and it looked like Cilic was going to take it easily. He played better on two of his three
