Wimbledon: Medvedev survives giant scare against Cilic to enter round four for first time
Jul 04, 2021
London [UK], July 4 : World Number two, Daniil Medvedev survived a scare against 2017 finalist Marin Cilic to enter the second week of the Wimbledon Championship for the very first time here at Number 1 Court.
Medvedev extended his grass-court winning streak to seven matches with the 6-7(3), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory, a three hour, 36-minute marathon of twists and turns and moments of madness. This victory was also his first time coming back from two sets down at a Grand Slam.
In the first set, Cilic broke the number two seed for a 4-2 lead. But Medvedev broke straight back courtesy of a Cilic double fault and set then went to the tie-break. The Croatian then took that decider for the loss of just three points and continued that dominance in the second set which he took by 6-3.
Medvedev got the breakthrough he was looking for when he snaffled the Cilic serve in the third set. And from there the Russian did not look back as he again broke at the start of the fourth set and marched purposefully towards the fifth.
In the decider, it was Medvedev who drew the first blood as Cilic's serve was becoming more and more brittle. Cilic's chance had come and gone while Daniil settled into his rhythm and established a 5-0 lead. Cilic clawed it back to 5-2 but that is as far as he got. Medvedev converted his fourth match after Cilic pushed a backhand long point to advance.
"It was an unbelievable match. It was the first time I came back from two sets down to win. What is amazing is two times here in Wimbledon, I was two sets down and two times I came back and had a break in the fifth set and lost the match," Wimbledon quoted Medvedev after the match.
Elsewhere, for the 18th time, Roger Federer entered the second week at Wimbledon as he defeated Cameron Norrie in the third round 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 at Centre Court.
