Wimbledon: Daniil Medvedev rallies to overcome Marin Cilic in five-setter

Russia`s Daniil Medvedev returns against Croatia`s Marin Cilic during their men`s singles third round match on the sixth day of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. Pic/AFP

World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia kept his composure and raised his level to overcome 2017 finalist Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-7(3), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 and reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time.

Medvedev will next face Poland's 14th seed Hubert Hurkacz for a spot in the quarterfinal. Hurkacz moved into the fourth round, his best result at a Grand Slam, with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik.

"It was an unbelievable match," Medvedev said in an on-court interview after the Saturday evening match.

"I think tennis fans always enjoy watching players come back from two-sets-to-love down and for it to be five sets. I certainly do so when I watch tennis on the TV. It's my first comeback (from 0-2 sets down), and actually what's amazing is against (Belgium's) David Goffin at Wimbledon in 2019, I was two-sets-to-love down and I had a break in the fifth set, but I lost. So when I left the court after the fourth set today, I told myself, 'It's not going to be another one of those'.

"So I'm really happy. When I was 5-0, 40/0 up at the end and Marin came back to 2-5, I thought to myself, 'Again..!' Marin is an amazing player and for the first two sets he basically destroyed me," said Medvedev.

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The world No. 2 arrived at Wimbledon high on confidence after claiming his 11th ATP Tour title at the Mallorca Championships, his first tour-level trophy on grass courts. He continued the momentum to become the seventh Russian man to complete a set of round-of-16 appearances at all four Grand Slams, and the second to do so in as many days after Andrey Rublev achieved the feat on July 2.

With Rublev and Karen Khachanov already through to the second week, Medvedev's win also marks the first time that three Russian men have reached this stage at Wimbledon in the Open Era (since April 1968).

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