Felix Auger Aliassime, the Canadian, showed no signs of panicking under pressure in the fourth round of the 2022 Australian Open.
The world number 9 bounced back from a slow start to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the third year in a row with a 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 7-6 win over 27th seed Marin Cilic.
The 21-year-old, who is making his third Australian Open appearance, was overjoyed after securing his first win of four attempts against Croatian Cilic in a match that lasted 3 hours 39 minutes at John Cain Arena.
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“I trust myself even more,” exclaimed Auger Aliassime. “This is my first win against him, at such an important moment. I told him at the end of the game that he was a champion, the way he handled himself, the way he played, he played at his best level, tested me and made me work hard to win. I’m really relieve and happy got through it, especially the way I’ve done it.”
Cilic recorded a straight sets win in their last meeting, in the 2021 Stuttgart final and looked confident of producing nearly the same form early on, including breaking it twice to win the first set easily.
The Canadian has seen a lot of struggles in Melbourne, including a five-set win against Emil Ruusuvuori and he had to battle it out again against 2014 US Open champion Cilic.
“He hit really well at the start of the game,” added Auger Aliassime. “I played one bad game at 4-2 but for the rest of the set I think he just played better than me, did things better.”
“The second set was tight, but it was a crucial turning point. You can’t be 2-0 down, it would be quite tough, so it was a crucial moment, then in the third set I started to feel better and better.”
With this victory, the world number 9 closed the head to head gap against Cilic by 1-3 and in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, he will duel against world number 2 Daniil Medvedev.
Auger Aliassime, whose best Grand Slam achievement was when he reached the semifinals of the US Open last season, is now 7-2 in 2022. He has won five of the six tiebreaks he has played at the Australian Open this season.
