MONTREAL: Dominic Thiem reached the Montreal Masters quarter-finals on Thursday with a 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 over Marin Cilic, his second win in two days having had to wait five years to break his duck in Canada.
Austrian second seed Thiem, who had knocked out home hope Denis Shapovalov on Wednesday, faced two break points in the final game against 2014 US Open winner Cilic before securing victory on a third match point.
"It's another great win for me," Thiem said after his 31st victory of the season. "I was very lucky to save the nine break points I faced.
"But it was very mentally difficult to serve out the win. To reach the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 is always special."
Thiem came to Canada after winning the Kitzbuhel clay-court title at home last weekend.
Next up for Thiem is a last-eight clash on Friday against Russian eighth seed Daniil Medvedev who eased past unseeded Christian Garin of Chile 6-3, 6-3.