Félix Auger-Aliassime’s 2025 revival is showing no signs of slowing down as he defeated Marin Cilic in three sets on Thursday to reach the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships, his fourth semifinal in six tournaments so far in 2025. It was his ATP Tour-leading 15th match win of the season.
Unlike the previous week in Doha where he got a walkover and a retirement on his way to the final four, Auger-Aliassime has done it the hard way in Dubai, needing three sets in each of his matches to get to the semis. After holding his nerve against Alexander Bublik and Nuno Borges in the first two rounds, he did it again against Cilic in the quarters, breaking twice in the decider to advance with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win.
In a battle between two big hitters, Auger-Aliassime was the more solid of the two, delivering 22 winners to 21 unforced errors while Cilic only managed 17 winners, committing 38 errors. Both men were strong on serve, winning 77 (Auger-Aliassime) and 76 (Cilic) per cent of their respective first serve points, but the Canadian defended his better overall, saving six of seven break points while converting three of his 10 chances.
Cilic came out of the gate stronger, dropping just one point in his first three service games and having four early chances to break the Canadian, including a 15-40 look in the sixth game. But Auger-Aliassime ground his way out of the jam and then pounced when he had his own chance. In the very next game, Cilic mishit a forehand to give the Canadian his first chance to break and Auger-Aliassime drew an error to grab the first and only break of the opening set.
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The roles reversed in the second, with Auger-Aliassime having more chances to break but Cilic was the one who converted his only look. The Croat battled through a marathon opening game, saving a break point with an ace, before settling in. At 2-1, he was gifted the break when Auger-Aliassime committed three straight errors to go down love-40 and then double-faulted.
While the Canadian had a chance to break back in the seventh game, but Cilic snuffed out a break point with a huge forehand winner. The Croat did not have another chance to break Auger-Aliassime but he did not need it, riding his lone break into a third set.
The deciding set was almost a perfect reversal of the second set. This time, it was Auger-Aliassime who had to save a break point in the opening game, delivering a clutch serve, before breaking in the fourth game. After having failed to convert two break points in the second game, at 2-1, deuce, the Canadian fired a forehand winner to get another look at a break point and this time, he hung in a hard-hitting rally and eventually Cilic missed a backhand to surrender the break.
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As the Croat had in the previous set, Auger-Aliassime hung on to that break and saved a break point with an ace in the seventh game. As Cilic served to stay in it at 2-5, the Canadian made a final push, racing ahead love-40, triple match point, and clinched the win when Cilic missed a forehand on the third match point.
Auger-Aliassime will now look to reach what would be a tour-leading third final of the season. He will face either lucky loser Luca Nardi or qualifier Quentin Halys in the semis.
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