World No. 23 Marin Cilic put together one of the most impressive performances of the French Open against world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the round of 16. The big Croatian earned a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory in a match in which Medvedev was a -320 favorite. Now, he a lot of momentum into a meeting with world No. 7 Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals.
While Cilic once again finds himself as an underdog, the 33-year-old really feels like the player more likely to win. Cilic is fresh off one of the best performances of his entire career and dominating in the fashion he did means that he should be feeling pretty good physically. That’s important when you factor in that Rublev only had to play two sets before Jannik Sinner retired in their quarter-final match. Cilic has also dropped only one set in this tournament thus far, while Rublev has dropped at least one set in all four of his matches. There’s also no guarantee that the Russian would have emerged with the victory against a healthy Sinner, who is a phenomenal clay-court player. Having said that, it’s the Croatian that enters this battle in the better recent form.