3rd seed Carlos Alcaraz defeated former US Open champion, Marin Cilic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in a late-night thriller to continue his quest to become the youngest World No. 1. Carlos Alcaraz will face Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals who leads their H2H 2-1.
The match proved to be a tough one for Carlos Alcaraz as he had to consistently deal with powerful baseline shots from Cilic. Cilic made it hard for Carlos all match and at one point almost ran away with it. Alcaraz however, was resolute to come back and broke Cilic in the decider to become the youngest man to enter back-to-back quarterfinals at US Open since 1953.
Carlos Alcaraz struck 28 winners in the match and converted 6 of his 18 break point opportunities. Marin Cilic on the other hand got half the breakpoints and converted 5 of those. It was however the double faults that proved costly for the Croatian. He made 13 aces all match but with that came 13 double faults as well.
Cilic, down 2 sets to one, fired heavy baseline shots as he took over the teenage Alcaraz. He broke to take away the 4th set and force a decider. It was getting tense as the match went on to the next morning. Cilic, relentless from the previous set, broke Alcaraz early in the decider to assert control.
Carlos’s fighting spirit ultimately got the better of Cilic as the former found angles to break and get back on serve. Carlos did not slow down as he punished Cilic for letting him make a comeback. In the end, he found a way to stop the former champion’s charge and win after three hours and 53 minutes.
The match ended at 2:23 a.m, making it the 4th latest match finish in the US Open history.
Reactions from Carlos Alcaraz after the match
“Honestly, I have no idea,” Alcaraz said of how he won the match. “It was pretty, pretty tough at the beginning of the fifth set [being a] break down. But Marin was playing unbelievable. I believe in myself all the time. Of course the support today in Arthur Ashe [Stadium] was crazy. Without you guys, it wouldn’t be possible to win this match tonight, so thank you very much for the support tonight, thank you.
“I would say 100 per cent of the energy I put in the fifth set was thanks to you. It was unbelievable. “After a fourth set [when] I had a lot of opportunities… it was tough for me to come back in the fifth set, to stay strong mentally,” Alcaraz said. “But as I said, the energy that I received today made me win.”
