GENEVA -- U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic saved a match point against 17-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev before winning 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-1 in the Geneva Open second round on Tuesday.
The second-seeded Croatian trailed 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker to No. 229 Rublev, who is the French Open junior champion.
Cilic dropped only four points on serve in the decider to set up a quarterfinals match against Santiago Giraldo of Colombia.
Giraldo ousted another Russian, eighth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, 6-4, 6-4.
Top-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland faces Lukas Rosol in the second round, after the Czech Republic player beat Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan 1-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5.
Former world No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, whose season stalled because of a foot injury, exited quickly as Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan won 6-0, 6-2.
In other first-round matches, French qualifier Adrian Mannarino beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, and Teymuraz Gabashvili was a third Russian to lose, going down 6-3, 6-4 against Federico Delbonis of Argentina.