Continuation of the Roland-Garros semi-finals, Wednesday 1er June. The Croatian giant Marin Cilic (20e) took the best in five sets over the Russian Andrey Rublev (7e) after a marathon match. In the night session, the Norwegian Casper Ruud (8e) is measured against the Danish nugget Holger Rune.
Among the women, the world number one, the Polish Iga Swiatek, took out the American Jessica Pegula (11e) in two sets (6-3, 6-2). She will find, in the next round, the Russian Daria Kasatkina, who barely beat her compatriot Veronika Kudermetova (6-4, 7-6).
Page Contents
Marin Cilic solid in key moments
The Croatian Marin Cilic beat the Russian Andrey Rublev after a match of five sets (5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (10-2)) in four hours ten. Despite his 71 unforced errors, the winner of the 2014 US Open ended up overcoming the resistance of the number 7 seed, thanks in particular to the quality of his service (33 aces) and his volley. This is the first super tie-break (in ten points) ever disputed on the central of Roland-Garros
Seeded number 20, Cilic was more solid than Rublev in key moments. Despite a sometimes heroic resistance, the latter was too inconstant to impose himself. It is the first time in fifteen appearances that the Croatian, who crushed world number two Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, has reached the semi-finals at Roland-Garros.
“The fifth set was an incredible battle. Andrew [Rublev] played so well… Today is my day, but he was unlucky”said Marin Cilic after the meeting.
At 33, he becomes the fifth active player to have reached the last four in the four Grand Slam tournaments, along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. He is the first Croatian player to achieve such a performance.
Iga Swiatek on her way
Without suspense, Iga Swiatek won in two sets (6-3, 6-2) and one hour twenty-nine against Jessica Pegula (28), seeded number 11. In this disjointed match between two solid players from the baseline, where unforced errors outnumbered winners, Swiatek played the important points better. Pegula, who failed to convert his many break points, can harbor regrets.
This is the thirty-third victory in a row for Iga Swiatek, the last survivor in this tournament of the top ten in the ranking of the Tennis Players Association (WTA). The young Polish woman, who celebrated her 21st birthday on Tuesdaye anniversary, will face Daria Kasatkina on Thursday. This will be the second semi-final at Roland-Garros for the one who won the 2020 edition of the tournament.
Daria Kasatkina, first half in Grand Slam
Daria Kasatkina won, not without some scares, on Wednesday, against another Russian, Veronika Kudermetova, in two sets. While leading a set to nothing and serving for the match at 5-4, Kasatkina saw her opponent unbreak. Ditto during the decisive game: the one who has still not lost a set in the Paris tournament had five match points (6-1), but Kudermetova did not let go and returned to 6-5, before cracking on a cushioning.
“I discovered clay fairly late, around 10 years old, I think. In Russia, we don’t have many clay courts. But, from the start, I loved this surface. I found it very intuitive. You can do so many different shots there. Now I even prefer dirt to hard surfaces”said, in 2018, the former winner of the junior tournament (2014), whose best performance at Porte d’Auteuil was a quarter-final that year, against the American Sloane Stephens.
quote of the day
“In our era, and as a woman, also as a former player, I don’t feel bad or I don’t find it unfair to say that currently there is more attraction for men’s matches”
Faced for the first time with the difficulty of scheduling the matches of a Grand Slam tournament, Amélie Mauresmo, director of Roland-Garros, defended on Wednesday the highlighting of the men’s matches by the biggest “attraction” that they present. “I admit it, it was difficult to find match of the day in the women’s draw more than once. (…) As we only have one game in the night session, it is difficult to make this choice.recognized on Wednesday. the former world number one.
Of the ten night sessions of the fortnight, only one women’s match was selected, in the second round, opposing the French number one, Alizé Cornet, to Jelena Ostapenko, the winner of the 2017 tournament. On the other hand, of the twenty matches which started at 11 a.m. on the Suzanne-Lenglen court, the time when there are often the least crowds, eighteen were matches in the women’s draw.
