Defending champion Marin Cilic had himself quite a battle in the third round. He met Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin in hopes of another straightforward victory as it was anything but. The ninth seed was pushed to five sets as he overcame the Kazak in an entertaining opening match on Louis Armstrong Stadium on Friday with a 6-7(5), 7-6(1), 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-1.
First blood to the Kazak
Kukushkin struck the opening blow in the first set by breaking on Cilic’s second service game. A net cord setup triple break point and would follow that up with ferocious return on the Croat’s second serve to go up 2-1. The Croat struck right back thanks to some unforced errors by Kukushkin.
Cilic would break the Kazak in the eighth games thanks to some devastating backhands from the Croat. Despite the break, Kukushkin would fight right back to break then consolidate for 5-all.
In the tiebreak, Kukushkin had two set points at 6-4 but one was saved as a Cilic lob landed in. A poor choice in a drop shot from the Croat on the following point did him in in the opening set.
The defending champ fights back
Both players held serve with ease until Cilic faced break points in the sixth game. The upset looked to be on as the defending champ was broken and saw the Kazak go up 5-2 after consolidating. Cilic put some scoreboard pressure on Kukushkin by holding quickly for 3-5. He would break for 4-5 then consolidate as another tiebreaker loomed large.
The second set tiebreak was a much more business-like performance for the Croat. Kukushkin won a lone point in the breaker as Cilic screamed with approval as he leveled the match and made his opponent pay for not converting on set points for a two sets to love lead.
Cilic finally gets ahead, but Kukushkin forces a decisive fifth set
It was quite an uneventful third set as both men were holding with no problems whatsoever. Cilic finally struck for a 5-3 lead. Unlike the first set, Cilic had no problems closing out the set to take a two sets to one lead.
The Croat looked to have finally gotten his confidence and serve going, racing out to a 2-0 lead in the fourth. The Kazak fought back though as he broke back and would continue to keep trucking along as we were into a third breaker of the match. This breaker was a complete 180 from the second set as the Kazak looked to be in complete control the whole time as he forced a fifth with a 7-3 win in the breaker.
The defending champ runs away with it
Cilic made sure there was no fifth set drama needed. He raced out to a double break, 4-0, lead to put to rest any thoughts of a potential upset. The defending champ closed out the final set 6-1 and will face Jeremy Chardy, who defeated David Ferrer, for a spot in the quarterfinals.