Marin Čilić will try to reach his third consecutive victory against Djokovic on Saturday.
Croatia’s best singles tennis player Marin Čilić will play in the semi-final of the ATP Masters 1000 series tournament in Cincinnati against Novak Djokovic, reports Gol.hr on August 18, 2018.
The former top tennis player in the world defeated Canadian player Milos Raonic 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 for a place in the semis. Just hours before, Djokovic faced Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov in the continuation of his round of 16 match, essentially giving him two wins in just a few hours.
Čilić also had a double-stacked few days. First, the Croatian player had to expel 22-year-old Russian Karen Khachanov in the round of 16 match that fell on Thursday night though, due to rain, was forced to continue from the third set on Friday. After defeating Khachanov 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4, Čilić’s winning streak in Cincinnati continued after defeating Spaniard Carreno-Busta 7-6 (7), 6-4 later that day.
Čilić will fight against Djokovic for a place in his second final in Cincinnati and his second final at a Masters 1000 series tournament. It will be the 17th meeting between the two players, and Čilić has only celebrated twice thus far. However, Čilić has won the last two games, namely, at this year's Queen's Club tournament, and in 2016 in Paris. Previously, Djokovic had 14 victories in mutual meetings.
By entering the final, Čilić would jump to fifth place in the individual ATP ranking, and by winning his second title in Cincinnati, he would skip Alexander Zverev to be the fourth best tennis player in the world.
