Marin Cilic had little trouble with David Goffin in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday, moving into the quarterfinals with a 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory to confirm a meeting with Kei Nishikori on Wednesday.
Cilic was relatively untroubled and lost his serve just once in the last two-plus hours of the match despite an uneven serving performance — he put just 46 percent of first serves in play, double faulted six times and won fewer than half of second serve points.
But he saved five of the seven break points he faced, got to Goffin’s serve on five occasions and squeezed out a first set win that put him in firm command and allowed him to play on the front foot.
He closed the match in style, notching his 42nd winner — just 12 of which came on aces — with a cross-court forehand on his third match point. It came after an 0-30 start in the game and a break point later on, possibly the greatest trouble he faced in the final two sets.
“It was crucial for me to get back in the game [at the end] and play great at the end of the set,” Cilic said on-court. “After the first set I felt he slowed down with his first serve.”
Cilic said on-court that Goffin told him during their post-match handshake that he continued to struggle with a shoulder issue that has plagued him in recent weeks.
It was the Belgian with the upper hand in the first set. He broke Cilic in the opening game and lost just three points on serve until 5-4, when he was broken back. Two backhand return winners kept Goffin in the ensuing tiebreak and a Cilic double fault helped give the No. 10 seed a set point, but Cilic swatted it away and converted his first.
The match turned firmly from there. Cilic won Goffin’s first two service games and had break points in every one, then converted the lone opportunity he needed in the third. It marked a sharp contrast from Cilic’s five-set battle with Alex de Minaur in the previous set in which Cilic lost the first two frames and needed match points in three separate games to finally win.
“Today I was thinking only one match point, second match point, I was hoping it didn’t go to the eighth one,” Cilic said.
