Inspired by Fedal, Marin Cilic hopes to start 2018 afresh with smarter scheduling

Of the three finals Marin Cilic played in 2017, he lost two – grass courts at Queens and Wimbledon – in markedly different ways.

At the Aegon Championships he squandered a match point in a thrilling final against Feliciano Lopez. In his second Grand Slam final, he was hampered by a blister on his foot which left him in tears as Roger Federer powered through.

He lifted his only title of 2017 on outdoor clay at Istanbul, even as he achieved a career-high ranking of No 4. However, the current world No 6 is looking at the positives from his mixed-bag season last year. The top-most on that list – improved consistency and smarter scheduling.

“I would say that in the grass season I was at my best in every possible way I could be,” Cilic said ahead of his season-opener at the Tata Open, Maharashtra. “I played the clay court season, reached quarters of the French Open, which was a first, [made the] finals at Queens and at Wimbledon and I had a great run there. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play at a great level in the final.”

He added, “But I think that if I keep doing those thing at that level and with that consistency, it might happen that I continue playing like that at Wimbledon and it also gives me opportunities at other Grand Slams.”

The grass-court season was undoubtedly his best, bookended by a below-expectation performance by the former US Open champion. He started the year on a low, not going beyond the second round in his first three tournaments, including the Australian Open.

He didn’t play anything after Wimbledon till the US Open where he lost in the third round to Diego Schwartzman. He was also part of the Davis Cup and the victorious Team Europe at the inaugural Laver Cup. He had semi-final runs at Tokyo, Shanghai and Basel, but despite it all, his season ended in an anti-climax where he lost all his round-robin matches at the ATP World Tour Finals.

He also split with coach Jonas Bjorkman towards the end of 2017 and now trains with Ivan Cinkus, who has been part of his team earlier when he trained with Goran Ivanisevic.

Asked about this strange slump, the 29-year-old was straightforward saying that he was mentally drained by the grueling tour. “Towards the end of the season I got a little bit mentally tired, I played a lot of tennis travelled a lot especially since the start of the US Open – Davis Cup, Laver Cup, the Asian tour... I felt that I just dropped my form at a critical point,” he said.

Listening to his body

At the same time, he insisted that the tour is not long, but called for smarter scheduling on a personal level to recharge both mentally and physically.

“I felt like I learned a lesson in a way, just to be a little bit smarter with scheduling,” he said. “If I get to that point again [I will try] to get a little more breaks mentally and physically as well and be a bit more fresher for the end of the year. It is a matter of picking up the schedule and making some space and listening to my body,” he added.

Cilic has played 66 matches this year, with a win-loss record of 44-22. With an injury layoff during the North American hard-court swing, this number was lower than what he played last year, as the graph shows.

But as Federer and Nadal’s trajectories showed in 2017, a cherry-picked schedule comes with its own advantages. Even though he finished as year-end No 1, Nadal was drained out by the end of the season. The Spaniard not only cut short his 2017 season, but has also put a spanner in the start to his 2018 one. The Swiss, on the other hand, took judicious breaks and won seven of the 12 tournaments he played.

Cilic admitted that the ‘Fedal’ resurgence was a motivating factor for him as well. “It just pushes me to be a little determined, they are bringing the challenge a little bit higher. With their mental approach, game and thinking process they are the top [players],” the Croat said.

New season

Any points he gains at the season-opening tournament are a bonus after a shock opening-round defeat at the event previously held in Chennai. But the opportunity to gain more points and move to a career-best ranking spot is not lost on him.

“In one way it is easier to relax and not be so stressed but I want to keep that intensity to try to play as good as I can for the first part of the year,” he said. “I know it can push me to reach the best ranking of my career, maybe No 3, and I will try to give my best to open the season [on a high].”

Although a top-10 player, Cilic might not have the support of the crowd in his season opener in Pune, as he will play India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan on Wednesday. But the former two-time Chennai Open champion is looking forward to what he believes is one of the best preparations for the Australian Open.

“Expectations are on my game [not the tournament]. I enjoy playing in the first part of the year after working hard in the off season and take advantage of the good work we have put it,” he said.

He also hopes to win one more Major after his win at the 2014 US Open beating Federer in the semis and Kei Nishikori in the finals. “Expectations are to try and be better than last year in every possible way, starting obviously to be more determined to continue to try and work harder this year,” he said.

“The goal this year for me is to win a Grand Slam and to finish the year in the top five. Those are big challenges and I hope I can achieve them,” he added.

Whether the 29-year-old can win another Major is debatable, but if he can improve his consistency, another top-five finish looks likely.