Cilic moves on to quarters in Memphis
Top seed Marin Cilic of Croatia survived three match points in a third-set tiebreaker and beat Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the US National Indoor Championships in Memphis, Tennessee.
Cilic won 7-6 (2), 3-6, 7-6 (7) in a match that last more than two and a half hours.
Meanwhile, sixth-seeded Tommy Haas withdrew late on Thursday, citing a respiratory problem that has plagued him all week. Haas's departure means Feliciano Lopez of Spain advances to the quarterfinals in a walkover.
In the other night match, Jack Sock defeated James Blake in a battle of wildcard entries from the United States, 7-5, 6-4.
Cilic, the world's 12th-ranked player, saved four break points in the 11th game of the third set to take a 6-5 lead. He squandered a match point with Sijsling serving at 5-6 in the third set.
Sijsling double-faulted on his third match point of the tiebreaker and lost when he netted a forehand from behind the baseline.
The win moved Cilic - who won his ninth ATP Tour title two weeks ago in Zagreb, Croatia - into the quarterfinals against fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, who advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over qualifier Donald Young of the US
Also, Marinko Matosevic of Australia eliminated fourth-seeded American Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Querrey had saved one match point in the deciding game, but double-faulted to send the advantage back to Matosevic. After a long rally from the baseline, Querrey sailed a forehand long, giving the Australian a berth in the quarterfinals.
"I started to return a little bit better, and probably the major thing was I picked up my serve percentage," Matosevic said of his play in the last two sets. "I started to get a few more free points and started to hold my own serve a little bit easier."
Also advancing were No 7 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and American Michael Russell.
Dolgopolov beat American qualifier Rhyne Williams 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; Istomin defeated former world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 6-1, 6-2; and Russell won 6-2, 6-4 over Lukasz Kubot of Poland.
