Cilic Endures Five Sets With Tsonga to Reach Semifinals
In what many people saw as the appetizer before the Serena and Venus Williams matchup on Ashe tonight, 19th seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and ninth-seeded Croat Marin Cilic dazzled the crowd went the distance on Tuesday afternoon. Cilic, the defending champion, outlasted Tsonga in the five-setter 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4 to reach the U.S. Open semifinals.
Cilic seemed to be on his way to a routine victory early on. He broke Tsonga once in the opening set, and once again in the second set, committing just 14 unforced errors and saving all four of the break points he faced.
But things changed in the third. Tsonga cut down on his errors and was finally able to break Cilic’s serve. He broke on one of his three opportunities and didn’t face one on his own serve to force a fourth set.
Neither player was able to do much on the other’s serve in the fourth set. The pace of the hitting picked up and both players were moving behind the baseline and teeing off. Cilic had a couple of match points on Tsonga’s serve, but the Frenchman saved both of those and took that momentum into the tiebreaker.
At 2-2 in the breaker, Cilic double-faulted and Tsonga used that break to go on and take the tiebreak and force a fifth set.
"It was a big mental battle, especially after losing the fourth set," said Cilic. "But I still felt like I was playing well and didn't back off from my game plan."
In the fifth, Cilic took advantage of a few errors by Tsonga and broke at love for a 3-2 lead. The match would remain on serve, and even after Tsonga saved one more match point, the defending champion finally closed it out on his fifth match point of the afternoon.
“He just hit the ball a little more properly than me at the right moment,” said a disappointed Tsonga. “That was a huge difference at the end, because he just made it. He just made it.”
Cilic will take on world number one Novak Djokovic or 18th seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the semifinals. Djokovic and Lopez will meet later tonight on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Credit all photos to Lee Seidner
