Christian Garin equals his best performance in Masters 1000 after beating Cilic and reaching the quarter-finals in Rome

Christian Garin (45th in the ATP ranking) is still on fire in Rome. The Chilean tennis player continues on his good performances and has already qualified for the quarter-finals of the tournament after beating the Croatian Marin Cilic (23rd) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the round of 16 of the competition. It is the third time that he has reached the first eight series of a Masters 1000 after Paris-Bercy 2019 and Madrid 2021. . Besides, this will allow him to return to the group of the top 40 in the ranking .

In the first set, Garin had to make an effort to take the lead in the match. This was demonstrated in the fourth game of the match, in which Marin Cilic had four chances to take Garin’s serve. However, the national tennis player endured and managed to secure his serve and leave the partial tied at 2-2.

This effort seemed to cheer him on, while the Croatian was overwhelmed with the effort, as on the fifth Game Garin took advantage of his play to be able to take his rival’s serve in the second option the European gave him, dominating the match 4-2 after confirming the break. .

The duel could be leveled in the eighth, when Cilic had another chance to break Gago’s serve, who ended up defending with the whole point and managed to get 5-3 up. It all ended with another break on the ninth Game to close the first set 6-3.

The second set began just as complex for Garin. In the first game, Cilic managed to have a double break point, saved again by Garin. The match became favorable to the Chilean again in the fourth game. There he had to struggle to, on his third chance, hit and take his rival’s serve and go ahead 3-1.

But Gago’s work was complicated in the Game Following. After a long point, and on his third chance, Cilic finally managed to take the Chilean’s serve, confirming the break with his serve to make the second quarter 3-3.

The suffering continued into the seventh game, at which point Cilic had three break chances, but this time Garin denied them all. Something very different from what happened in the ninth. There, Garin made a series of errors that gave the Croatian the chance to take the second set with his serve, which happened when he closed the split 6-4. .

In the third, Garin came back down to the scoreboard in the third Game. The South American tennis player managed to save a break point before the Croatian reached his goal and took a 2-1 lead.

But the Chilean didn’t have any other complications and quickly recovered from the blow. In the fourth, he recovered the break in a worked point in which he accumulated three break options, managing to confirm it in the next and going up 3-2.

Garin’s momentum was mixed with Cilic’s disappointment in the following game, allowing Gago to earn another break and take a 4-2 lead. . The problem on this occasion is that he could not confirm it later, sending the ball into the net in what appeared to be a simple shot, which provoked a furious reaction from the Chilean throwing the racket and throwing it. breaking on the ground. Thus, in the eighth Game Cilic managed to confirm his break and leave the third set tied at 4-4.

Already in the tenth game, the anxiety had passed and the party arrived. Garin reached a triple match point closing it all at the first opportunity and ended up winning the third set 6-4 after two hours and 58 minutes of play. .

With this result, the Chilean qualified for the quarter-finals where a tough competitor awaits him. His rival for the passage to the semi-finals will be the German alexander zverev (3rd) which left the Australian Álex de Miñaur on the road 6-3 and 7-6(5).