October 19, 2019 – Marin Cilic defeated Jeremy Chardy in the quarters of the Kremlin Cup on Friday to book his first semi-final in 14 months!
HRT reports that Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic advanced to the semi-final of the ATP tournament in Moscow after defeating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (2) after two hours and 21 minutes of play.
It will be Cilic’s first appearance in the semi-final of a tournament in 2019 and his first in 14 months, or since Cincinnati in August last year.
However, this was no easy win for Cilic, and the match was full of twists and turns. In the first set, Chardy led 4-3 with a break only to have Cilic win the next three games, two of which were on Chardy’s serve.
To win the second set, it was enough for Chardy to break in the third game, which took the match to the decisive third set. Cilic led 3-0 only for Chardy to equalize at 3-3. Chardy had the chance to break Cilic to lead 4-3, which he didn’t use. Then, with a 4-3 advantage, Cilic had four opportunities to take his opponents serve; however, the winner would be decided in a tie break.
Cilic was convincing with his first strike in the decisive game and managed to score two points on Chardy’s serve for the win. This was Cilic’s fourth victory in his sixth match against Chardy. With this success, Cilic also skips Borna Coric (currently ranked 22nd on the ATP list) and will again have the status of Croatia’s best tennis player on Monday.
In the semi-final, Cilic will play against Russian Andrey Rublev, who beat Serbian Nikola Milojevic 6-2, 6-3. Cilic and Rublev have played twice so far, and each player has one win. Cilic celebrated back in 2015, while Rublev celebrated in March of this year in Miami.
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