Cilic, Roddick edge epics

Cilic: Battling win

Also see

• Men's draw
• Women's draw
• Profiles
• News list
• Betting

Marin Cilic sealed his place in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after edging a five-set epic with fourth seed Juan Martin Del Potro in Melbourne.

Cilic, the 14th seed, lost to Del Potro at this stage in 2009, while the Argentinian also knocked him out en route to his success at Flushing Meadows.

But this was to be the Croatian's day as he fired 71 winners as well as 20 aces to win 5-7 6-4 7-5 5-7 6-3 in four hours and 38 minutes on Hisense Arena.

The defeat ended a draining tournament for Del Potro, who spent almost 15 hours on court and played a total of 18 sets in his four matches.

Speaking after the match, Cilic said: "It wasn't easy to play him. I had to stay really focused all the time.

"I think the thing that kept me in there was my serve. That was one key thing that I did well.

Exhausted

"I think since the US Open I've started to play much better and win against better guys more often.

"I've had some tough matches here in the first few rounds, but today I felt really good physically, and that in the end was the main difference."

Del Potro was exhausted as he reflected on his loss.

"We played a hard match, five sets again," he said. "Marin is playing a great tennis. I think he did better than me and he won."

Cilic will play seventh seed Andy Roddick in the last eight after the big-serving American came from behind to beat 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez in five sets.

Roddick, a four-time semi-finalist at the event, prevailed 6-3 3-6 4-6 7-5 6-2 in just under three-and-a-half hours on the Rod Laver Arena court.

The American blasted down 23 aces and over 100 winners during the match as Gonzalez was made to pay for notching up almost 50 unforced errors.