Last year's runner-up Fernando Gonzalez of Chile suffered a 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 upset loss to Croatian teenager Marin Cilic in the Australian Open third round on Saturday.
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The seventh seed got himself back into the match when he won the second-set tiebreak but Cilic, the youngest man left in the draw, smashed a barrage of 60 winners past his helpless opponent.
"Today I was playing probably the best match of my life," the 19-year-old Cilic said in a courtside interview.
"I was fortunate that we were playing indoors, it helped me a lot, with my serve. It was a little bit faster and I played a great match today."
The Croatian had never won a Grand Slam match in three previous attempts before this year but he blasted through the first set in stunning fashion.
Gonzalez hit back to level but Cilic pulled away in the third and fourth sets to line up a last-16 clash with American 12th seed James Blake.
BLAKE FIGHTS BACK
Blake fought back from two sets down to seal a dramatic 4-6, 2-6, 6-0, 7-6, 6-2 victory over France's Sebastien Grosjean in the third round.
The 29-year-old Grosjean had raced through the first two sets before the 12th seed blasted him off the court in the third.
Grosjean, however, reversed the momentum and jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth before an angry Blake battled back, held to 5-4 and had two break points for the set before the Frenchman forced the tiebreak.
Blake trailed 3-0 in the tiebreak but surged back to win it 7-5 and ran away with the final set before sealing victory with an ace.
