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2022 French Open
ATP Tour
Stade Roland Garros
Paris
France
3 June 2022
Marin Cilic will be targeting his fourth career final when he takes on Casper Ruud in the semi-finals of the
French Open on Friday, June 3.
The Croatian has already achieved a career best at Roland Garros by beating Andrey Rublev in five sets on Wednesday to reach the last four for the first time on the Paris clay.
Cilic, who is making his 17th straight appearance at the French Open, had previously gone no further than the quarter-finals - a feat he managed on two occasions in 2017 and 2018.
The 33-year-old was eliminated in the second round last year and he had to come from behind to defeat Marton Fucsovics 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 at the same stage this time around, one of just three sets he has dropped on his way to the semis.
Cilic won the first super tie break in the history of the tournament to get past Rublev in a gruelling match that took four hours and 10 minutes and he admitted the Russian could easily have won on another day.
"The fifth set was an incredible battle and Andrey played incredibly well," he said. "It was an incredible fair-play performance on the court and a lot of heart, one had to go down and today was my day but Andrey also played an incredible match - bad luck to him.
"[I felt tired on the court] More emotionally because Andrey plays a difficult game, serves big, hits big and you don't have many chances and you've got to keep up with your level and I did that.
"Unfortunate loss that fourth set. I felt I was close maybe to get the break but Andrey played really well some games and when you play this long it's always going to be a little bit ups and downs during the match.
"But I kept my focus that game at, I don't know, four-all or something in the fifth (set) was the winning game."
Last five Australian Open winners
2021 - Novak Djokovic (SRB)
2020 - Rafael Nadal (ESP)
2019 - Rafael Nadal (ESP)
2018 - Rafael Nadal (ESP)
2017 - Rafael Nadal (ESP)
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