Marin Cilic survives scare from unseeded Mikhail Kukushkin to keep his hopes of retaining his US Open title alive

  • Marin Cilic through to the US Open fourth round with win over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan
  • It took the Croatian over four hours to defeat his unseeded opponent
  • Cilic admits he's feeling the pressure of being reigning champion  

By Reuters

Published: 18:13 EST, 4 September 2015 | Updated: 18:13 EST, 4 September 2015

Marin Cilic kept his US Open title defence on track but not without a scare as the No 9 seed needed over four hours to put away Mikhail Kukushkin to reach the fourth round on Friday.

Cilic stepped onto the Grandstand court having won 16 straight sets at Flushing Meadows but that string quickly came to an end when the 56th-ranked Kukushkin took the opening set in a tiebreak in what was the start of a long and harrowing afternoon for the defending champion.

'I'm happy with the fighting spirit today, just accepting that I wasn't playing so well,' said Cilic. 'For sure (being defending champion) always has some weight to it.

Marin Cilic is through to the fourth round of the US Open after narrowly beating Mikhail Kukushkin

Marin Cilic is through to the fourth round of the US Open after narrowly beating Mikhail Kukushkin

The Croatian is the reigning US Open champion and admits he's feeling the added pressure

The Croatian is the reigning US Open champion and admits he's feeling the added pressure

'Playing on a big court with a full house, that's going to give you some extra motivation in the situations like today when I was a set and 5-2 down.

'I was in the thought process that I am going to stay on the court as much as necessary.'

After crashing out in the first or second round of his last 16 tournaments, Kukushkin appeared determined to maintain an extended grand slam run following a second-round upset of 17th seed Grigor Dimitrov.

For four sets, the 27-year-old from Kazakhstan gave Cilic all he could handle and more but in the fifth he simply ran out of steam as the Croat surged ahead 5-0 before closing out the marathon encounter with his 27th ace.

The Kazakhstan-native pushed Cilic all the way but couldn't cause yet another upset 

The Kazakhstan-native pushed Cilic all the way but couldn't cause yet another upset 

'Today was very strange coming into the fourth set,' said Cilic. 'I felt that Mikhail was struggling a little bit physically and then I was really on top of him. Having a break up in the fourth, 15-40, few chances to go a double-break up.

'From then on things got complicated. He was making a lot of shots and just swinging. It wasn't easy to play.

'I didn't know actually what to expect.'

Cilic revealed that it was tough going against Kukushkin as he struggled with his unpredictability 

Cilic revealed that it was tough going against Kukushkin as he struggled with his unpredictability 

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