PARIS — Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, continued an impressive run Monday at the French Open, defeating Daniil Medvedev, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, in the last match of the day.
Medvedev is the 2021 U.S. Open champion and the No. 2 seed here, but he struggled Monday, and Cilic took advantage.
“I enjoyed the atmosphere, I enjoyed the night session here,” Cilic said in his postmatch interview on the court. “I played incredible tennis, one of the best matches of my career, from start to finish.”
The victory sets up a Wednesday date with No. 7 Andrey Rublev in an interesting round on the men’s side that will also include Holger Rune, a 19-year-old from Denmark, against No. 8 Casper Ruud, a 23-year-old from Norway.
Earlier in the day, Rune eliminated 2021 French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach his first major quarterfinal in his Roland Garros debut.
Fortieth-ranked Rune beat fourth-seeded Tsitsipas, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, at Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday in Paris.
Tsitsipas is the first player seeded in the top eight to leave the men’s bracket.
“I was very nervous on the court, being frustrated a lot,” Tsitsipas said after the match. “And I knew I was this way, but I couldn’t stop being like this.”
Rune never had won a Grand Slam match until last week, going 0-2 in previous appearances at the sport’s top four events.
But the hard-hitting 19-year-old now joins sixth-seeded Carlos Alcaraz to make this the first Slam tournament with two teenagers in the men’s quarterfinals since Hendrik Dreekmann and Andrei Medvedev at the 1994 French Open.
“These kids are going to want to beat me badly because obviously they are chasing,” Tsitsipas said. “I’m chasing too, but I’m at a different kind of position than they are. I’m hungry to beat them too. Now that they have beat me, I want payback.”
Rune had a bit of trouble closing things out against Tsitsipas after going up 5-2 in the fourth set. Rune dropped nine points in a row and his lead narrowed to 5-4. Then he needed to save three break points before serving out the biggest victory of his career.
Rune’s next opponent, Ruud became the first man from Norway to get to the round of eight at the French Open. Ruud reached his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal by defeating Hubert Hurkacz, 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Twelfth-seeded Hurkacz was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year. He had lost in the first round of the French Open in three consecutive appearances.
Rublev, into the quarterfinals for the second time in three years, advanced after his fourth-round opponent, 11th-seeded Jannik Sinner, stopped playing because of a problem with his left leg. Rublev was leading, 1-6, 6-4, 2-0, when Sinner retired, grimacing as he walked off the court. Sinner’s leg was treated by a trainer during his previous match and then again Monday.
Rublev has lost a set in every match he has played this year at Roland Garros on the way to his fifth career Grand Slam quarterfinal.
PEGULA ADVANCES; KEYS OUSTED
Jessica Pegula became the third American woman to reach the quarterfinals, but Madison Keys failed to join the party as she crashed out after a sizzling start to her fourth-round match at Roland Garros.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, dropped the first set before getting past Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen, 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2, for her 32nd consecutive win – tying the third third-longest win streak on the women’s tour since 2000.
The 26-year-old Pegula, who is seeded 11th, advanced with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania. She will next face Swiatek in the quarterfinals.
Pegula, owner of a 2-3 record at Roland Garros before this year, saw two sides to taking on Swiatek, who beat her on a hard court at the Miami Open in March.
“Sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh, I wish I didn’t play her in the quarterfinals. I wish I played one of the other people and didn’t meet her so early,’” Pegula said. “But at the same time, it’s a great chance to have a great win and a great story.”
Pegula, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, and Swiatek are the only two of the top 15 seeds remaining in the women’s bracket.
Pegula, whose two previous runs to the round of eight at Grand Slam tournaments came at the Australian Open last year and this year, arrived in Paris with a 2-3 career record at the clay-court major, with one third-round appearance.
The 31-year-old Begu, who had won both of her past meetings vs. Pegula in straight sets, fell to 0-3 in fourth-round matches at majors. She was fined $10,000 earlier during this French Open after she threw her racket, which bounced into the stands and brushed a child in the stands.
Swiatek’s 20-set winning streak came to an end against Qinwen, but it was of no matter as her match streak reached 32. Venus Williams leads that list with 35 in 2000, followed by Serena Williams with 34 in 2013 and Justine Henin with 32 in 2008.
Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, shook off an uncharacteristically problematic stretch and came back to beat the 19-year-old Qinwen.
Swiatektook leads of 3-0 and 5-2 in the first set but couldn’t close it out, wasting five set points in all. In the tiebreaker, Swiatek claimed five consecutive points to lead 5-2 – and the 74th-ranked Zheng responded by reeling off the next five points. That was the first set ceded by Swiatek since April 23.
Zheng’s movement was not as good at the start of the second set and she took a medical timeout to have her upper right leg taped while down 3-0. Swiatek grabbed eight straight games to own the second set and take a 2-0 lead in the third and would not let the lead slip away.
When it ended, she screamed “Come on!” and shook her right fist.
Earlier Monday, Keys totally lost control after a brilliant opening set, crashing out with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 loss to Russian Veronika Kudermetova in Paris.
Keys, the No. 22 seed who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2018 and the quarterfinals the following year, was powerless against Kudermetova, who used a heavy forehand on Court Philippe Chatrier to put Keys on the defensive.
Kudermetova advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
Keys dominated the opening set but lost rhythm after Kudermetova took a bathroom break before the second set.
She held and then broke Keys’ serve to take a 2-0 lead in the second, which she served out on her seventh set point.
“I tried to trust myself, to believe. That was my key,” said the 29th seeded Kudermetova, who will face fellow Russian Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinals.
“Sometimes I tried to play harder, sometimes with the spin, a little smarter. I did a good job today.”
Kudermetova, who hadn’t been past the third round in singles at any of her previous 12 major tournaments, broke in the opening game of the third set after being down 40-0 and, with the exception of a service break in the fourth game, controlled the rest of the match.
Keys was the runner-up at the 2017 U.S. Open and was coming off a semifinal run at the Australian Open.
Kasatkina matched her best performance in a major by reaching the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Camila Giorgi.
The 20th-seeded Kasatkina saved a break point as she served for the match and clinched it on back-to-back unforced errors from Giorgi.
“I’m excited about the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, most important,” said Kasatkina, who reached the quarterfinals at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2018. “It doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the net.”
Keys’ loss kept the U.S. from having four women advance to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for the first time since 2002.
Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old seeded 18th, and Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up, face each other on Tuesday, when the other women’s matchup will be No. 17 Leylah Fernandez, a 19-year-old from Canada, against 54th-ranked Martina Trevisan of Italy.