‘He’s an incredible guy,’ Marin Cilic lauds Andrey Rublev’s ‘great sportsmanship’ after ground-breaking victory at the French Open
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Andrey Rublev and Marin Cilic
Former US Open champion Marin Cilic turned back the clock to reach his maiden Roland Garros semifinal. He played some amazing tennis to defeat 7th seed Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinal in five thrilling sets 5-7,6-3,6-4,3-6,7-6(10-2) to become only the 5th active player to reach the semifinals of all four majors.
During the match, Rublev showed a lot of sportsmanship at times. In the final set, there was an instance where Cilic argued with the umpire for a close line call. The umpire, upon looking at the mark, judged the ball to be out but Cilic argued that the ball had clipped the line and hence was in. Upon Cilic’s persuasion with the umpire, Rublev intervened and agreed to Cilic that the ball was in.
As a mark of respect, Cilic clapped for his opponent’s incredible sportsmanship, and later, hawkeye confirmed that the ball was indeed put and the umpire was right. Despite being in such a tense situation in the match, Rublev sacrificed his point. The Croat, after the match, praised Rublev for his sportsmanship and termed him a ‘great guy’.
“Andrey on a few occasions showed great sportsmanship and in this kind of a match, every single point counts. I have to hand it to him. Bad luck to him, unfortunately, one of us had to go down but it just shows he’s an incredible guy, an incredible player,” he said.
‘I’m unbelievably proud’: Marin Cilic
The 20th seed analyzed the match and expressed how proud he was of himself for winning against a tough opponent like Rublev. He also spoke about how the conditions differed from a couple of days ago.
“I’m unbelievably proud,” Cilic spoke on Eurosport. “Today was a tough day in the office and playing against Andrey is really a tough thing to do. Today was slightly different conditions to two days ago. It was a little bit harder in that the ball was not bouncing as much. Then it was not easy to open up the court and use the topspin. Luckily today I was serving fantastically well.”
Cilic will now play 8th seed Casper Ruud in the semifinal. This will be the first French Open semifinal for both Ruud and Cilic.
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Lakshya Chopra
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