Breaking the glass ceiling, Marin Cilic emerges US Open champion in grand style
Following 10 days of bright sunny weather along expected lines and in keeping with the regular forecasts, there was a sea change in the pattern the last four days at the 2014 US Open. Accompanying this change in the weather was a change of pattern, quite different from the forecasted predictions, in how the men’s singles championship panned out at the final Grand Slam of the year.
Standing tall (literally and figuratively) at the end of it all was 25-year-old Marin Cilic of Croatia, the 14th seed, with the championship trophy in his hands having just put down the challenge of his final opponent, Kei Nishikori. The 10th seed from Japan was Cilic’s final victim in a run to the championship that uprooted many a seed, leaving them displaced in the wake of his seismic display. In the process, he became the lowest seed to win the men’s singles championship since the great Pete Sampras did it as the 17th seed back in 2002.
Journey from Court 11 to Arthur Ashe Stadium
Cilic did his rounds on Court 11, Grandstand and the Louis Armstrong Stadium inside the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center as he made his way into the quarter-finals for a meeting with Tomas Berdych. With that the scene shifted to the centrepiece Arthur Ashe Stadium; with the change in scene, came a huge upswing in Cilic’s form, going from good to near stratospheric levels.
And it was success achieved not by virtue of the rest of the pack giving way, but by Cilic clearing the path for himself, tossing aside everything that stood in front of him. Consistently big-hitting from both wings, a booming serve and great court positioning were the instruments that he used to such telling effect that his opponents simply had no answer to him in the latter stages of the tournament. To say that he played unbelievable tennis fails to somewhat capture what tennis watchers around the world were treated to; he simply played ‘lights-out’ to use a sporting phrase.
2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic has been the new face in the Cilic camp since the end of last season. What was also new in his title run was his calm and confident approach with an unwavering focus and nerve. Taking out players of the ilk of Berdych, Roger Federer and Nishikori with such consummate ease isn’t everyday business.
It is not uncommon to see players hit such patches of form in events on tour – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s Rogers Cup win comes to mind – and even Davis Cup matches, but rarely is it seen so consistently in Grand Slams outside of the ‘Big 3’. But a man named Stanislas Wawrinka turned that theory on its head at the beginning of the year to earn himself a maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and Cilic, taking cue from the Swiss man, capped off a similar run at the year’s final major.