MONTREAL - Dominic Thiem reached the ATP Montreal Masters quarter-finals by defeating Marin Cilic 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 on Thursday for his second victory in two days after waiting five years to break his duck in Canada.
Austrian second seed Thiem, who ousted home hope Denis Shapovalov on Wednesday, faced two break points in the final game against the 2014 US Open champion before securing the triumph on a third match point.
"I'm so happy with the two wins," he said after his 31st victory of the season. "I beat two amazing players.
"I've really had a great transition from a good confidence in the European summer. This is my first quarter-final here.
"The match today was unreal because I saved nine out of nine break points, which doesn't happen that often.
"At the end it got really tricky again. I served great basically all the second set, then the last games I got big troubles.
"So the match had everything. I'm really satisfied."
Thiem came to Canada after winning the Kitzbuhel clay court title at home last weekend.
The world number four booked a last-eight clash Friday against eighth seed Daniil Medvedev, who eased past unseeded Christian Garin of Chile 6-3, 6-3.
Thiem beat the Russian in April to win the Barcelona title. -AFP