Marin Cilic is the 2014 U.S Open Men’s Champion. It sounds strange doesn’t it? But it did not look strange as he dominated his final opponent Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in the Men’s final on Sunday.
It looked like Cilic had been contesting slam finals for years. But he had not. He had not even made a final. He had not even won an ATP500 event.
But, what he had been doing since returning from a ban for substance abuse last year is getting better. With the help of Goran Ivanisevic, his serve, struck down from the height of 6’6 has become a major weapon, and his forehand, too.
Those weapons combined to overwhelm Nishikori who by the time he lost the first set 3-6 and was broken early in the second set, looked a broken man. Cilic meanwhile was only intent on further crushing him, taking the second set 6-3, and then breaking early again in the third. While Nishikori did have 3 chances to break back, the Cilic serve was too good, the Croatian winning 80 percent of his first service points.
At 5-3, in the third, Cilic held championship points on his serve at 40-15. The 14th seed hit a serve down the middle, struck a huge forehand which knocked Nishikori off balance, and then whipped a backhand into the open court, his 38th winner of the match (27 errors) to close the deal on his first ever grand slam title.
Cilic fell on his back and celebrated. A year ago, he had been watching the final on his TV and been impressed by Nadal’s performance, The strangeness of it all was there to see, but there is nothing odd about the best man on the day winning, nor with it being someone of the toughness and talent of Cilic.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
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