The 26-year-old Russian, who arrived in Paris with only one match played on clay after almost two months without competition following an operation for a “slight hernia” in early April, had so far gone through the first three rounds without lose any set. His elimination follows that of Stefanos Tsitsipas, world N.4 and outgoing finalist, at the same stage of the Parisian Grand Slam earlier in the day.
In the quarter-finals, Cilic will face another Russian, Andrey Rublev, world No.7. The 33-year-old Croatian had not reached the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros for four years. And the Grand Slam quarter-finals for almost as long: his most recent was at the US Open of the same year (loss against Nishikori).
Although not a fan of clay and eliminated in the first round of Roland-Garros during his first four appearances, Medvedev remained in a quarter-final in Paris.
But the Russian, who briefly ascended the throne of world tennis in late February-early March, was powerless from one end of the match to the other against the 30-year-old Croatian, who has been in a clear revival of form for a few months. A statistic sums it up: he did not get a single break point.
On the other side of the net, Cilic racked up game winners (33) while limiting unforced errors (22), had an excellent success rate of 90% behind his first ball, and converted five of seven break points which he obtained. In other words, an ideal match.
“It’s one of the most beautiful matches of my career, it was fantastic from the first to the last point”, confirms Cilic, who considers playing his “best tennis in recent weeks”.
We have often seen him put Medvedev several meters from the ball, or even leave the Russian known for his formidable movement without reaction.
After just over an hour of play on the lit Central, the Croatian was already leading two sets to zero. He never slowed down and quickly escaped 4 games to 0 in the third set, until winning in 105 minutes. He could have made it a little shorter still if he had concluded on his first match point, obtained on Medvedev’s service after a smash harvested by the Russian.
Medvedev had never lost so far to Cilic in their previous three encounters.