American John Isner arrived at Crandon Park on a three-match losing streak, with just two wins on the season. But no matter what happens the rest of the tournament, the No. 14 seed will leave the site with a renewed sense of confidence —beating the World No. 3 can do that.

Isner did not face a break point in ousting second seed Marin Cilic 7-6(0), 6-3 in 87 minutes at the Miami Open presented by Itau Tuesday, his third win of this event alone.

It looked like the big server — Isner is now just 76 aces from becoming the fourth player in history to reach 10,000 — was on the verge of another disappointing loss in his opener against Jiri Vesely, as he lost the second set. But ever since, the World No. 17 has won five sets in a row to make his second Miami quarter-final. His best result at the event came three years ago when he advanced to the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. 

Just 13 points went against serve in the first 12 games of the match, and the ensuing first-set tie-break would prove crucial. Isner, who had won just two of seven tie-breaks this year, posted a shutout and used that momentum to earn his best victory of the season, earning his third triumph in 10 tries in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Cilic.

The 32-year-old will next face an in-form Hyeon Chung, who defeated Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-4, 6-3 in 68 minutes to reach his sixth quarter-final of the season and his second at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level (also 2018 BNP Paribas Open).

 Watch Full Match Replays

Last November, Chung arrived at the Next Gen ATP Finals having not reached a tour-level quarter-final since August (Winston-Salem). But after leaving Milan as an undefeated champion, the South Korean has not looked back.

The 21-year-old is now 23-6 since arriving in Italy for that season-ending event, and he has not dropped serve in his 27 service games at Crandon Park. Only one player has won more matches than Chung in 2018 (18): Juan Martin del Potro (19), who is also in the Round of 16 in Florida.

Isner leads Chung 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with two of those matches coming in the past year — the South Korean snuck past the veteran this year in Auckland while Isner won at the 2017 US Open.

Did You Know?
Isner was 2-5 in tie-breaks this season before shutting Cilic out in Tuesday’s first-set tie-break.

Tomas Berdych or Frances Tiafoe will need to play two matches on Tuesday at the Miami Open presented by Itau after their third-round clash was suspended due to heavy rain at 2:13 a.m. local time. Tiafoe is leading 10th seed and 2010 finalist Berdych 6-7(2), 6-2, 5-4.

Berdych got off to a 3-0 lead, but American Tiafoe recovered and at 4-4, 40/0, rain suspended play on Grandstand. A brief rain shower delayed play early in the third set, which resulted in service breaks in the third and fourth games. After two hours and 36 minutes of action, bad weather intervened once again.

Berdych or Tiafoe will resume their match on Grandstand mid-afternoon Tuesday, prior to contesting a fourth-round encounter against sixth-seeded South African Kevin Anderson from around 6 p.m. local time.

 Watch Full Match Replays

Earlier in the day, Anderson, the top seed left in the top quarter of the draw, battled to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory against No. 32 Karen Khachanov. The South African will have a chance to reach his second consecutive ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final.

Anderson has reached the final at three of his five events this season, winning the New York Open (def. Querrey) and finishing runner-up at Pune (l. to Simon) and Acapulco (l. to Del Potro). The 31-year-old is attempting to make the quarter-final in Miami for the second time, after losing at that stage in 2011 against Novak Djokovic. He is now 16-4 on the season. 

The South African faced a stern test against the 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier. But after getting broken in the opening set, he did not face a break point in the rest of the match.