Paris:World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev and No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas bit the dust at the Roland Garros clay courts, losing to Marin Cilic and Holger Rune respectively in the pre-quarterfinals of the second Grand Slam of the season here. A red-hot Marin Cilic of Croatia powered into the French Open quarterfinal with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Medvedev on Court Phillippe Chatrier, leaving the Russian's hopes of becoming world No. 1 at the end of the clay-court major in tatters. Cilic will face another Russian, Andrey Rublev, for a place in the semifinal.
"It was an absolutely fantastic match from the first point to the last," Cilic was quoted as saying by atptour.com. "I enjoyed the atmosphere, enjoyed the night session here. I played incredible tennis - one of the best matches of my career from start to finish." The 33-year-old is through to his third Roland Garros quarterfinal (2017-18) and his first Grand Slam quarterfinal since he reached that stage in three of the four majors in 2018, including the Australian Open final.
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Cilic's win over Medvedev was as one-sided as it gets, with the Croat breaking in the sixth game of the first two sets before racing out a 4-0 advantage in the third. Cilic next faces seventh seed Rublev, who moved past Jannik Sinner of Italy earlier on Monday when the Italian retired in the third set of their match. Cilic will be seeking his first Roland Garros semifinal.