Novak Djokovic pushed past Milos Raonic in a grinding match, while Marin Cilic booked a Cincinnati semifinal place of his own with a straight sets victory over Pablo Carreño Busta.
Djokovic fell behind early in every set, but found enough in reserve — especially in the final set — to prevail 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 32 minutes. The Serbian survived 21 aces, winning two-thirds of second serve points and earning 14 break points.
He turned the match for good at 4-3 in the deciding set, fighting to deuce and forcing two forehand errors from Raonic to move a game from the victory. He then fell behind 0-30, but won the last four points — highlighted by a series of forehands on match point — to advance.
After falling behind early in the set with a perfect passing forehand from Raonic, Djokovic responded immediately with a pass of his own to level the set. The Canadian held 0-30 on the No. 10 seed’s serve in the final set but could break just once.
Hours after closing out the third set over Grigor Dimitrov, Djokovic started slowly, failing to break Raonic’s 14-minute opening service game and later going behind. But Raonic double faulted twice at 5-4, and Djokovic won three straight games to take the opener.
Raonic held his early lead in the second set, hitting a series of powerful forehands on his fourth set point. But Djokovic answered in the third, leaving Raonic without a win in their head-to-head and Djokovic one match closer to his first Cincinnati title.
“In matches like this, very few points decide the winner,” Djokovic said on-court. “He was playing tactically really well. … I was very fortunate to read his serve on a couple of occasions.”
The quarterfinal victories set up a 17th meeting between Djokovic and Cilic, and a second high-profile match this summer after Cilic came from behind, saving match point, to defeat Djokovic in the Queen’s Club final. Djokovic won the first 14 tour level encounters, but the Croatian has taken the most recent two.
He booked his place in more straightforward fashion, recording a 7-6, 6-4 victory. It was not perfectly routine — the first set featured four breaks of serve and Cilic lost four straight points from 6-3 up in the tiebreak — but the No. 7 seed harnessed enough big hitting and straightforwardly secured the lone break he needed in the second set.
The topsy-turvy first set — Cilic’s second of the day after finishing off Karen Khachanov earlier — finally ended when Cilic slammed a service winner, and he saw off the pesky Spaniard for good when he chunked a forehand on the second match point.
