AEGON Championships 2017: Marin Cilic Progresses to Semi-Finals in Friday Scores
Marin Cilic continued his impressive form at the AEGON Championships on Friday, as he overcame Donald Young 6-4, 7-5 to book his place in the semi-finals at The Queen's Club.
The world No. 7 was in a class of his own on the clutch points, taking two otherwise even sets. Next up for him is Gilles Muller, who was involved in a similarly close match with Sam Querrey, eventually winning 6-4, 7-6 (5).
The other semi-final will see sixth seed and former champion Grigor Dimitrov take on Feliciano Lopez. Dimitrov needed three sets to get past youngster Daniil Medvedev, while Lopez saved a match point to overcome Berdych in a tussle dominated by serve.
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Below are the results in full from Friday's play and a recap of the best of the action on quarter-finals day.
AEGON Championships Results
(4) Marin Cilic defeated Donald Young - 6-4, 7-5
(6) Grigor Dimitrov defeated Daniil Medvedev - 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Feliciano Lopez defeated (7) Tomas Berdych - 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 7-5
Gilles Muller defeated Sam Querrey - 6-4, 7-6(5)
Friday Recap
With Andy Murray, Stanislas Wawrinka and Milos Raonic all out of the men's draw, the AEGON Championship is there for the taking for Cilic.
Indeed, even had the top three seeds been involved, the Croatian has showcased the form to beat anyone on grass at this competition, as the tournament's official Twitter feed noted prior to this match with Young:
In fairness to the American player, while he was unable to make an impression of any sorts on his opponent's serve, he battled gamely throughout much of this match. Young was solid with the ball in hand and traded well with Cilic in general play.
It's late in the sets where the class players show their strength, though. And Cilic is a class player, turning the screw at the end of both stanzas to get over the line.
Per Stuart Fraser of the Times, despite a fine effort, Young was frustrated at the end of the contest:
The next man tasked with halting Cilic's momentum will be Muller, who is in wonderful form on grass this year having already secured a win at the Ricoh Open, his second win on the ATP Tour in 2017.
As noted by the ATP Media Info, with this win over Querrey, the man from Luxembourg is building a brilliant reputation on this surface:
On the other side of the draw, Dimitrov kept his hopes of another Queen's Club win alive, eventually holding off a rally from 21-year-old Medvedev.
Having taken the first set, the 2014 champion would have been confident of pushing on to clinch the match in routine style. His fearless opponent ended any notion it was going to be straightforward with a fine response in the second set, although in the final stages the talent of the Bulgarian came to the fore.
As we can see, Dimitrov looked relieved to eventually get this one wrapped up, per Eurosport UK:
Next up for the talented seventh seed will be Lopez, who was beaten by Dimitrov in the 2014 final.
In another finely poised encounter dominated by the serve, the first set was decided by a tiebreak, with Lopez eventually getting over the line.
With no break points created by either player in the first set, the second settled into a similar pattern as thunderous serves continued and another tiebreak followed. This time it was Berdych who prevailed, breezing to a 7-1 win in the breaker and restoring parity.
The end of the decider was tense, as Lopez saved a match point and recovered to level the match at 5-5. He then grabbed the first break of the match in the very next game and served out against a dejected Berdych at the next opportunity.
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