By Chris Oddo | Monday, September 8, 2014

 

Marin Cilic came from out of nowhere to win his first Grand Slam in New York. Who's Next?

Photo Source: AP

With loud, thunderous serves and groundstrokes, and a guided-by-voices poise, Marin Cilic and his wrecking ball game did its part to further shake the foundations of men’s tennis on Monday in New York, sending a shot across the bow of the longtime keepers of the keys to the kingdom to indicate that their days may indeed be numbered.

US Open 2014: Marin Cilic Defeats Kei Nishikori for First Grand Slam Title

If Stan Wawrinka’s victory at the Australian Open was a tremor, Cilic’s run to the 2014 US Open title was an order of magnitude greater.

The cracks, surely, are working their way up the façade of a men’s game that has avoided chaos since Roger Federer began his regal run of dominance in 2004. For the first time since 2003 the men’s game has seen multiple maiden Grand Slam winners in the same season, but with so many rising players gaining in prowess and belief, it’s hard not to wonder if chaos will henceforth take the place of stability in men’s tennis.

Cilic’s 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over fellow first-time finalist Kei Nishikori was part battle cry and part coming of age, but it left no doubt that the gates of the kingdom have swung open and that tennis fans can expect more of the same in the years to come.

The Croatian, burnished with power in spades and a newfound belief that seemed to nudge his game into hyperspace during the second week of this year’s US Open, was ruthless against an overwhelmed Nishikori on Monday, hammering 17 aces and 38 winners while saving 8 of 9 break points.

Nishikori did some foundation-shaking of his own in New York, rocking the worlds of higher-ranked Milos Raonic, Stan Wawrinka, and—as his piece de resistance—knocking off top-seed an world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. That he struggled with nerves during his loss to Cilic on Monday, and likely fatigue from having spent over 16 hours on court in his first six matches in no way diminishes his achievements.

“I think I showed, my potential,” a disappointed Nishikori would say when ask what his positive takeaways would be. “I can beat anybody now. So if I can keep training hard and, you know, also practice hard, I think I [will] have more chances coming up.”

Cilic, meanwhile, demonstrated a keen aptitude for handling a once in a lifetime chance by taking advantage of each of Nishikori’s lapses to increase his foothold in the final. Each time Nishikori seemed close to causing a momentum shift the heavy hand of Cilic would drop a bomb serve or a clean winner to pull the tide in his direction.

By not dropping a set in his final three matches in New York, Cilic joined a lofty group of only six men to have done so in the Open Era – Roger Federer (2007), Stefan Edberg (1991), Ivan Lendl (1985), John McEnroe (1979) and Jimmy Connors (1978).

“These last three matches, everything was working perfectly,” Cilic later reflected. “It sort of came out of nowhere for me.”

But Cilic’s game has been in renaissance phase since he returned from his doping ban in October of last year, with his new coach Goran Ivanisevic at his side, and a new penchant for dictating play and letting the chips fall where they may. That philosophy worked to perfection for the hard-serving southpaw who became Croatia’s first Grand Slam winner when he won the Wimbledon title in 2001, and Cilic, though more serious and reserved than his mentor, has adopted it to a tee.

“At the beginning when we started to work, we sat together and Goran told me that my game and my tennis has to be aggressive tennis,” said Cilic. “Most of the times before I was dealing too much with the tactics against players and not focusing on my game. It was always in a bad ratio.”

Cilic said it took him a while to give up his tactical ways and just unhinge his game so that it would wreak its unique brand of havoc on the tour. But now that he has, the 25-year-old won’t be turning back.

“It wasn't easy to change my perspective and to change completely my mindset,” Cilic said. “It took definitely, you know, even five, six months of the tournaments to be able to sink that into me and that I know on the court that's the right way for me to play. Week after week, I mean, you have to get better in what you do.”

With Saturday’s shakedown of Roger Federer as exhibit A, and today’s lopsided shellacking of Nishikori as exhibit B, it’s clear that Cilic has turned a corner. Not only is he hitting big, he’s also blanketing the court like never before, and he’s been more consistent, both in his approach and in his ability to find the court.

When the week started you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn’t tabbing either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic as the ultimate winner in New York. Now that men's tennis has its first major winner from outside the top ten in over a decade (Gaston Gaudio, 2004 French Open), should we expect more of the same or will the powers that be, perhaps buoyed by another Rafael Nadal revival in 2015, hold the fort down for one last year?

Cilic wants the rest of the “second line” to be inspired by his breakthrough. Let’s storm the gates, he says. “[My win is], I feel, very inspirational for all the other guys out there who are, you know, working and sometimes losing motivation, having trouble to dig deep and to believe in the achievements,” he said. “I would definitely feel much stronger if I would see somebody like me accomplish things like this.”

After his win over Federer, Cilic alluded to the fact that he thought the week’s breakthroughs could be just the beginning of a larger trend. “Wawrinka opened the doors for us from the "second" line, and I think most of the guys have now bigger belief that they can do it on the Grand Slams,” he said. “Just over here as well, Kei beat Wawrinka, beat Novak, and Milos, so played amazing, amazing tournament. I think it's going be extremely interesting for the next several, for sure, Grand Slams.”