Cilic Enjoys Milestone Day In Moscow

Marin Cilic carved more history for himself on Thursday at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow. The Croatian earned his 500^th career win, beating countryman Ivo Karlovic 6-1, 7-6(5) to become only the 50^th player in the Open Era to achieve the milestone and just the 10^th active player with 500 or more victories.

Cilic raced through the opener behind two breaks and didn’t face a break point. In the second, Karlovic raised his level but Cilic fought through a tough 3-4 game in which he erased three break points and found a way to advance in the tie-break.

The two-time Moscow champion will next meet France’s Jeremy Chardy, who was untouchable on serve during a 6-3, 6-4 victory against eighth seed Miomir Kecmanovic. Chardy won 83 per cent of his first-serve points and never faced a break point against the Next Gen ATP Finals hopeful.

Sixth seed Andrey Rublev hadn’t won a match at his home tournament before this week. Now the 21-year-old is into the quarter-finals.

Rublev beat Belarusian qualifier Egor Gerasimov 7-6(3), 6-7(7), 6-2 to make the last eight at the ATP 250. Rublev saved six of seven (86%) break points and ran away with the deciding set behind two breaks of serve.

“I’ve known Egor for a long time and I know how he can play. His level does not match his ranking,” Rublev said of Gerasimov, No. 98 in the ATP Rankings. “He’s been showing it for the past couple of months. He is showing good results… against very strong players. He recently beat Matteo Berrettini. I knew it would be very hard.”

The Hamburg European Open finalist (l. to Basilashvili) will next meet Serbian lucky loser Nikola Milojevic, who beat Russian wild card Alen Avidzba 7-5, 6-0. Milojevic took the place of Daniil Medvedev at the top of the draw once Medvedev withdrew following his Rolex Shanghai Masters title on Sunday.