Sport | Tennis
Barclays Dubai Championship: Red hot cilic
World No 10 tells XPRESS exclusively that he intends to continue his sizzling 2010 run of form in Dubai next week
- By Jaydip Sengupta, Sports Writer
- Published: 00:00 February 18, 2010
- Image Credit: AP
- Marin Cilic
Dubai: Of all the men's players taking part in the ATP World Tour 500 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, perhaps the hottest on current form is the towering 6ft 6in Croat Marin Cilic.
Two tournament victories, at Chennai and Zagreb, sandwiching his magnificent run at the Australian Open, where he took out Juan Martin Del Potro and Andy Roddick, has catapulted him into the top 10, a feat he wasn't looking at achieving so soon.
Talking to XPRESS exclusively, the big-serving 21-year-old said he is more than happy at having to readjust his goals for the year.
"Before the year started, my goal was to reach the top 10, and now after one month I have already made big results and definitely it's going to help me for my next tournaments and future tournaments.
"Last year I was in a similar sort of situation, where I won two tournaments at the beginning of the year and played really well, so it was a new thing for me.
"But now this year I am one year older, one year more experienced and that helps me understand that I can play better against the top guys and that's going to be easier for me in the next big tournaments," he said.
Cilic had not one, not two, but three marathon five-setters at the Australian Open, something he believes played a part in his semi-final loss against Britain's Andy Murray, a man he had beaten in straight sets at the US Open last year.
"Well, I think the first thing was the physical part. The matches before took a little bit out of me, maybe five to 10 per cent.
A step too slow
"And against players like [Murray], against players at the top it's never easy to get back into the game when you lose one step and he took very good advantage of that and for me it was even tougher mentally to come back into the match. But then he played well and he deserved to win," he said.
Cilic's Australian Open run came close on the heels of his US Open quarter-final showing last year, but ask him and he says it's neither of these two events that tops his list. "I know that the least chance I have is the French Open but the rest I think I like to play, on hard courts and grass. It is tough to choose but I would love to win Wimbledon," he said.
This is the Croat's third visit to Dubai and so far, he has loved every bit of what he has seen. "I played here two years and I really enjoyed the tournament as it's really nicely organised for the players, the food, hotel, practice courts, matches, stadiums, everything is really high-class and definitely I enjoy every time I come back there. "I am not the sort of guy that likes to walk around town too much, but I have seen a few things and of course it is a very nice city," he said.
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