Marin Cilic is a renowned Croatian tennis player, winner of the 2014 US Open Grand Slam, finalist for Wimbledon 2017 and the Australian Open 2018 in men's singles. In addition, to date, he has 18 victories in the ATP series tournaments. It is also worth noting that Marin Cilic is a fairly tall tennis player. His height is 198 centimeters.
early years
The birthplace of Marina Cilicha is the village of Mezhdugorje, located on the lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was born here in November 1988 into a large family (in addition to Marina, she had three more children - all boys). Cilic is Croatian by nationality.
Until the age of thirteen, he played tennis in Medjugorje. And then his father, Zdenko Cilic, discerning sports talent in his son, sent him to Zagreb to another famous tennis player from the Balkans - Goran Ivanishevich. Goran also saw a certain potential in the young Marina, and therefore sent him to study with coach Bob Brett, one of the best specialists in his field.
In 2005, Marin won the youthful Roland Garros. This allowed him to reach second place in the world junior rankings. And a year later, he even topped this rating.
Start of a professional career
In the summer of 2005, Cilic took part for the first time in the ATP (Association of Pre-Professional Tennis Players) tournament. And in February 2006, at the Indors championship in the city of Zagreb, he sensationally beat the Russian Igor Andreev, who was then the 25th racket in the world.
The year 2008 was especially important for Cilic's biography. This year he brilliantly showed himself at the Grand Slam tournaments. At Roland Garros and Wimbledon, he managed to reach the 1/8 finals. Moreover, in the same 2008 he was one of the members of the Croatian national team at the Summer Olympics, held in Beijing.
The athlete finished the season at 22nd place in the world rankings, and for the next several years he was steadily holding himself in the elite of men's tennis. According to the results of 2009, Cilic was fourteenth, at the end of 2011 - twenty-first, in 2012 - fifteenth.
Doping scandal
In 2013, Cilic found himself at the center of a doping scandal. In his analyzes, the prohibited substance niketamide was found, which is why it was decided to disqualify the tennis player for 9 months. As Marin himself reported, he just by chance bought glucose tablets from the pharmacy, which contained doping.
In the future, Marina managed to appeal and reduce the period of ineligibility to four months. And Cilic spent this time to his advantage - he trained hard and improved his physical characteristics.
Further achievements
The first tournament in which Marin Cilic took part after serving the suspension was the US Open 2014. Here he was able to reach the final, which came as a surprise to many analysts and ordinary fans. Indeed, at that time, Cilic was not even included in the top ten of the world rankings. The second finalist was the Japanese Kei Nishikori. As a result, Cilic turned out to be stronger in this confrontation. It is interesting that the Croat won all three sets with the same score - 6: 3, 6: 3, 6: 3.
In October 2014, Cilic won another resounding victory - he won the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Here, in the final match, he defeated the Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Aguta, the score of the match was 6: 4, 6: 4.
In subsequent years, Cilic continued to perform confidently at the highest level. In 2017, he was close to winning the main turf tournament, Wimbledon, England. But, alas, in the final, Cilic lost to Swiss Roger Federer in three sets.
In January 2018, the Croatian tennis player became the third racket in the world, and this is still his highest achievement. In addition, in 2018, Cilic reached the Australian Open final for the second time in his career. And again here the Swiss Federer prevented him from getting the coveted trophy.
And in the summer of 2018, Cilic reached the final of the London Fever-Tree Championships, where he met with Serb Novak Djokovic. Alas, Cilic in this fight managed to win only one set out of three, that is, Djokovic ended up being stronger.
At the beginning of 2019, Cilic again took part in the Australian Open. But this time he only managed to reach the 1/8 finals. And more recently, in May 2019, Marin appeared at the championship of the Masters-100 series in Madrid. However, before the quarterfinal stage, he suddenly withdrew from the tournament - due to a knee injury.
Personal life
In April 2018, Marin Cilic married Christina Milkovic, whom he had met for many years before. It is known that Kristina has two higher educations (in the areas of "Psychology" and "Political Science") and is currently working in a bank in Zagreb.
Cilic and Christina got married in Tsavtsat, a city with a rich history located in the north-west of the Balkans, right on the Adriatic coast. 400 guests were invited to the celebrations on this occasion, including such Croatian tennis stars as Goran Ivanisevic and Ana Konyukh.
