The 33-year-old Croat already impressed in the quarterfinals by sending Daniil Medvedev home. Cilic did not let the number two in the world come into the game for a moment.
The first set went to the 24-year-old Russian on Wednesday, who had enough at the end of the set: 7-5. In the remainder of the match, Cilic came better and better into the game. The second and third set went to the Croat, who again served strongly.
five-setter
In the fourth act it was the Russian who placed a break. He was then allowed to serve for the set win, did not fail and dragged out a decisive fifth set.
In this, Cilic was the first to get a match point on his opponent’s serve, but this was cleared by Rublev who then ‘just’ made it 5-5. Also in the two games after that, both men kept their service game and so a decisive tiebreak came to the ten.
The Croat played a strong tiebreak and so he is in the semifinals in Paris for the first time in his career.