Sports

Marin Cilic: From drug flunk to Open quarterfinalist

A year ago, Marin Cilic missed the U.S. Open because of previously failed drug tests.

Now, he’s in back in a familiar place, beating Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. Cilic made the U.S. Open quarters his last appearance in Flushing in 2012.

Cilic pulled out of Wimbledon in 2013, claiming he had a knee injury, but it was later revealed he had failed a drug test.

Cilic was cited for taking a banned substance, which increased his glucose levels. He was given a nine-month ban, later reduced to four months after a ruling didn’t find him completely at fault since the substance was purchased by a member of his team. Cilic said he didn’t take it to increase his performance.

After returning from the suspension earlier this year, Cilic won the first tournament he played in, the Zagreb Indoors in Croatia, and later suffered a third-round loss to Novak Djokovic in the French Open, but made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

Now he’s in the Open quarterfinals for the third time, looking to make a Grand Slam semifinals for only the second time in his career — the only other time was at the 2012 Australian Open.

“It’s the second time in my career that I played that I’m going to be in the quarterfinal for two straight majors,” Cilic said. “It shows me that I’m really playing well, and especially at these big tournaments I’m improving. Over here always played in U.S. Open very well. This year I feel I’m playing good, and going to enjoy the moment.”

Cilic was in some trouble Tuesday, dropping the first set before winning the second in a tiebreak. But he proceeded to win two of the final three, including the fifth set, with relative ease to win the match in 4 hours and 13 minutes. Next up for Cilic is a quarterfinal match with Tomas Berdych.

“I’m playing more consistent in this last four, five months. I think overall I’ve improved my game,” Cilic said.

The 25-year old Croatian has won two titles this year and this was the first time he had ever beaten Simon in four head-to-head matches.