Marin Cilic becomes 5th player after Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray to achieve huge feat

Since most of the focus coming into the French Open 2022 tournament was on world number one Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, 33-year-old Marin Cilic went unnoticed. After digging deep to defeat Andrey Rublev 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2) in a five-set quarter-final thriller, the Croatian joined the likes of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to become the only active men to have reached the semis of all Grand Slams.

Marin Cilic reaches semis of all Grand Slams after win over Rublev

Former world number three Marin Cilic's outstanding victory over Andrey Rublev in the French Open quarter-finals helped him rise to no 17 in the ATP rankings, six spots higher than at the start of the tournament. The last time the former US Open winner was ranked in the top 20 was in August 2019.

Cilic was delighted to play aggressive tennis and reach the Roland Garros semi-finals. After the win, he said in his post-match interview, "I played that kind of tennis the whole match, and especially the fifth set was an incredible battle. Andrey played incredibly well, and it was an incredible fair-play performance on the court. A lot of heart, and one had to go down. Today was my day, but Andrey also played an incredible match."

Cilic went on to praise his opponent as he added, "Andrey plays a difficult game. Serves big, hits big. You don’t have many chances and you have to keep up with your level and I did that. Unfortunately, I lost that fourth set. I felt I was close to getting the break maybe, but Andrey played really well and when you play this long it’s always going to be a little bit up and down during the match."

Following an incredible battle against Rublev, Cilic will now face Casper Rudd, who also had a fantastic four-set battle against 19-year-old Danish player Holger Rune. After winning the first set by a score of 6-1, Rune fought back in the second set, winning it 6-4. However, Rudd used all his experience to seal the tie-break 7-2 in the third set before winning the fourth set 6-3 to win the match. The Casper Ruud vs Marin Cilic match will take place on June 3, with the winner set to reach their maiden Roland Garros final.