The 19-year-old Alcaraz triumphed 6-4 3-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 in a match that completed at 2:23 a.m. native time — simply three minutes shy of the event’s newest end.
Alcaraz, the highest-ranked participant left within the males’s draw, will contest his second US Open quarterfinal when he takes on Jannik Sinner on Wednesday.
“It was unbelievable,” Alcaraz mentioned in his on-court interview. “After the fourth set, I had lots of alternatives on the finish, misplaced the fourth set.
“It was robust for me to return again within the fifth set, to remain robust mentally, however … the vitality that I acquired (from the gang) right now made me win.”
In opposition to Cilic, in a match that lasted near 4 hours, Alcaraz led after the primary and third units however could not put his Croatian opponent away till the fifth.
He went a break of serve down in the beginning of the match however fought again to win the subsequent 4 video games and take the primary set.
There was the same story within the second set as Alcaraz broke early earlier than Cilic reeled off 4 consecutive video games and held serve to stage the match.
The third set stayed on serve till Alcaraz broke at 5-4, however his 2-1 lead was minimize when Cilic broke late within the fourth — regardless of the teenager having break factors of his personal all through the set.
Because the match carried on nicely previous midnight, Alcaraz seized the benefit with a break to like at 2-1 and sealed the victory when Cilic pummeled a forehand into the highest of the web.
This was by far the hardest take a look at of the event to date for Alcaraz, who had not dropped a set previous to going through Cilic.
He subsequent faces one other rising star in 21-year-old Sinner — the Italian, like Alcaraz, hoping to succeed in a grand slam semifinal for the primary time.