Cilic Outlasts Tsonga In A Five-Set Scorcher To Reach The Semifinals

In the 12th game of the fourth set, Marin Cilic hit a daring sliced backhand drop shot with his match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hanging in the balance.

Tsonga was grimacing, hobbling at times during the match with a wrap around his left knee. He was anchored to the baseline. If the ball went over the net, Tsonga had no chance to return it. But Cilic's shot fell woefully short, dying against the net. Tsonga won the game and the tiebreaker to force a fifth set.

At a critical juncture in the final set, an undaunted Cilic deployed the sliced drop shot again, this time on the forehand.

The ball went over the net. Tsonga hit it back, but Cilic hammered the return down the line for a winner, putting himself in position to break Tsonga's serve.

It was the pivotal moment in Tuesday's match, and Cilic, after enduring a scare from Tsonga, went on to win, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, in a steamy, 3-hour-59-minute endurance test and advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Open for the second straight year.

Cilic became the first player to break Tsonga's serve in this tournament, and he did it three times, once in each of the sets he won.

"Big mental fight," Cilic said in a television interview on the court, "especially after losing that fourth set. I had those three match points and I played really well on those shots, but Jo made some amazing shots."

Cilic, the No. 9 seed and defending champion, will play the winner of Tuesday's late match between No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 18 Feliciano Lopez.

The Cilic-Tsonga match, at Arthur Ashe Stadium, was a prelude to the quarterfinal encounter between Serena Williams and Venus Williams. The match was supposed to start shortly after 7 p.m., but Cilic and Tsonga were still throwing punches at each other then while fans with tickets to the night session had to wait for the match to end before entering the stadium.

Tsonga looked shaky and immobile in the first two sets, unable to contend with Cilic's powerful service game. His quest to break through to a new level at the Open appeared to have little chance of success. The 19th-seeded Tsonga has played in the semifinals of three other major tournaments, but not here.

Before the third set, Tsonga received medical attention from a trainer, who applied a wrap just below Tsonga's left knee. From that point forward, it was as if a different player had arrived on the court. He was still grimacing after long runs, hobbling between points and adjusting the wrap.

Cilic, who beat Kei Nishikori in last year's final, won his service game with another slice backhand drop shot to take a 5-3 lead, as if to prove the point that he could make that shot at a big moment.

Although he had used soft, crafty shots to break Tsonga earlier in the set, Cilic, leading by 5-4, now relied on power. He served a 130-mph ace wide at 15-30, and then, at 30-30, he rifled a 135-mph missile up the middle, his fastest serve of the match.

On his fourth match point, he double-faulted. At deuce, Tsonga showed he was still game for a break of serve. Tsonga whipped an inside-out forehand cross court for a winner. But Cilic forced deuce again by pushing Tsonga wide and then smashing home a backhand volley.

At deuce, he hit behind the exhausted Tsonga for a winner, and the finally, on his fifth match point, he forced Tsonga into the corner, and Tsonga hit a forehand long.

© 2015 New York Times News Service