Change is afoot in men’s tennis. The signs have been there since the beginning of the year, when Stan Wawrinka triumphed at the Australian Open. Now, the US Open has brought confirmation.
But Marin Cilic? Even the oracles would have struggled to predict this one. The big Croat was a rank outsider at the start of the tournament.
The face of change? Not even Cilic would have dared to put forth his name two weeks ago. Pundits and fans were talking about Wawrinka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov.
Cilic never really featured in those conversations. A year ago, he was not even playing tennis while serving a five-month suspension for failing a drug test. He did win minor events on his return, in Zagreb and Delray Beach, but there was no hint of a major champion in the making.
He did not look the part as recently as his match with Gilles Simon in the fourth round last week. But since then, it seems, some malevolent spirit of tennis has taken hold of him.
Tomas Berdych was brushed aside in straight sets. Roger Federer was then, as Cilic's coach Goran Ivanisevic put it, given a "tennis lesson". In the final, Cilic was majestic against Kei Nishikori.
In the Open era, only five US Open champions have gone through the final three matches without dropping a set: Federer, Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. All great names, and if Cilic can play like this consistently through the coming years, he might be mentioned with them a bit more often.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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