Fourth seed Andrey Rublev will contest his second ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final after ending former World No. 3 Marin Cilic’s run at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Tuesday. Rublev’s 6-4, 6-4 victory was delivered in 82 minutes and set a showdown with #NextGenATP American Sebastian Korda.
Rublev lifted his tour-leading match-win count this season to 19-3 and extended his ATP Head2Head record against the Croatian to 3-1. He joins top seed Daniil Medvedev as one of two Russians into the last eight in South Florida.
Cilic was shooting for his first quarter-final in Miami since 2013 and his first win over a Top 10 opponent since his upset of Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round of last year’s Australian Open. After his semi-final finish in Singapore in February, this was the 32-year-old’s most promising run of 2021.
He had beaten 13th seed Cristian Garin before ending #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti’s run in straight sets. However, the in-form Rublev presented another step up. Rublev broke first for 3-2 and sustained the advantage to take the opening set after 41 minutes. His seven unforced errors were less than half the Croatian’s.
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The Russian was in trouble when he found himself 0-30 down on serve at 1-2 in the second set before he reeled off four straight points to hold with a running forehand pass at full stretch. The minor escape only spurred him on as he broke again for 3-2 and never relinquished.
He finished with six fewer winners than the Croatian’s 24, but he only hit 16 unforced errors to Cilic’s 29. A maiden Masters 1000 semi-final will be on the line when Rublev next meets debutant Korda for the first time.