Throughout his 15-year career Marin Cilic has learned many lessons on the pro circuit.
The 32-year-old Cilic offers a candid assessment of how experience can help—and hurt—a tennis player.
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Cilic says wisdom gained over the course of his career has helped him make good decisions on and off court, but it can hurt bu prompting over-thinking and self-doubt at times.
"Depends how you look at it," Cilic said. "For example, when you know more, then you are questioning yourself more. Is it right, is it not right? Should I go this or that? When you are young, you just go for it. You have so much time ahead of yourself. You are not questioning yourself.
"And then you just have to be smart to know how to deal with those things and to be able to find what's best for you. But, yeah, definitely I'm feeling wiser than I was when I started on the tour. And, you know, we would all say if I would have had this kind of mindset when I started the career, you know, who knows what would have been. But that's the way it is."
The 43rd-ranked Croatian, who became a first-time father this year when wife Kristina gave birth to the couple's son, Baldo, on January 31st, said tennis teaches you lessons about yourself.
"And you get experience, you get matches, you get through the years you are learning a little bit more about yourself and you're always trying to improve," Cilic said.
The 2014 US Open champion believes his best tennis is still ahead of him.
"I feel that I haven't reached still my peak," Cilic said. "You know, peak meaning that I feel the best on the court physically, mentally, technically, that I play my best tennis.
"I would like to reach that peak and feel that, okay, I have done that. This is what I was working for, and I can relax my mind now and go into retirement."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve