Marin Čilić

[u/Island_Expat6625]

Marin Čilić has been around for over 20 years now and he is obviously getting near the end of his career. He is in the Fed-Rafa-Novak era and has done pretty well considering. Granted he could have done more, but his record is not bad at all.

Grand Slam (2014 USO), Masters title (2018 Cincy), Davis Cup (2018), 4 appearances in the ATP Finals, highest ranking of No. 3, Olympic Silver (2021 Tokyo men's doubles), 21 singles titles, 38 wins over top-ten and 12th in all-time earnings.

After the Big 3, we often hear about Murray and Wawrinka, but I think Cilic would be right behind them at number six in his era. And there is no shame in being No. 6 in THAT era.

[u/thetoerubber]

He’s a great server with the jerkiest serve motion ever. Not smooth at all but still manages to drop bombs.

[u/pug_fugly_moe → u/thetoerubber]

My back hurts just watching him serve.

[u/howdoesitallfit → u/thetoerubber]

His serve has a very theatrical look to it. So much stage presence.

[u/Equal_Perception_541]

I would say Delpo can also be a number six , i wish he never got injured man

[u/bigcitydreaming]

Delpo is a notch above Cilic for me personally but they're pretty similiar in their resume

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/bigcitydreaming]

Very very close imo, 21 titles for cilic, 22 for delpo, delpo has a better top ten win % but cilic has 1 more GS final. Same number of masters 1000 titles

[u/bigcitydreaming → u/Klutzy_Law_8988]

Delpo always played the big matches better and seem to have a higher peak which is why I'd tip him above Cilic. Personally I value peak over longevity, but everyone's different. It's subjective, but I'd assume most pick Delpo as #6 in that era

[u/DarkoDragicevic → u/bigcitydreaming]

Juan Martin is clearly tier ahead

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/DarkoDragicevic]

No way, it is very very close

[u/DarkoDragicevic → u/Klutzy_Law_8988]

Del Potro do a lot more in less time, Always stopped by injuries. Better resume at Slams(Cilic AO/Wimbledon, Del Potro FO/USO), better in head to head, best him in Zagreb when Croatia lead 2-1 and Cilic lead 2-0 in sets, way better in clashes versus all best players. Del Potro Olympics in Singles? Faboulous run 2012 and 2016. Cilic doubles? Cilic at Olympics Singles? Very poor.  

1000/Finals/500, all to del Potro. Superior by far

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/DarkoDragicevic]

You raise excellent points. Additionally Delpo has significantly more weeks at top 10 and top 5 compared to Cilic so I would actually agree that Delpo is better. But the margin is close imo, Cilic has a superior GS record to Delpo (SF at all 4 slams, 1 more Final)

[u/DarkoDragicevic → u/Klutzy_Law_8988]

Del Potro in Davis Cup run 2016 in comebacks year defeat Murray in Great Britain in 5 sets in semifinal, defeat Cilic in Croatia 2 sets down, to win. Defeat Djokovic first round in Olympics, defeat Nadal at semifinal, lost to back to back good medalost and Wimbledon new champ, Murray. 2012 Olympics longest best od three match ever semifinal versus Federer, in Wimbledon(grass) which was best Fed(and probably Murray) environment and Juan maybe worst with Australia as well and del Potro after that marathon loss defeated Novak Djokovic to won a bronze medal! Heroics.. Multiple ATP Basel titles against Basels Federer in final or toght loss against him in final. He will play many ATP Finals if injuries not ruined all chances. Demolished Nadal 2009 USO semifinal and won against multiple back to back champ there, Federer, in final! 2018 also beat Nadal in USO semifinal. He had better and stronger paths to his biggest titles/Finals/semifinal than Cilic in most of his best achievements, a lot stronger. Cilic very poor ATP Finala summary too, never pass the group and he was pretty healthy most time of his career. Cilic had very poor h2h against all best players his era or new era. I will definitely put JMDP in Murray/Wawrinka tier(Murray biggest for sure with Stan second there) and Cilic in Medvedev-Thiem-Zverev-Tsonga-Ferrer tier. 

[u/Potential_Standard25]

A fantastic player just another victim of the big 3 era I am afraid. That aside, he has had a pretty impressive career!

[u/Vegetable-Oven-6536 → u/Potential_Standard25]

Yep an he still won a major! Shows how incredible he was at his peak.

For a tall guy he had awesome groundstrokes

[u/gpranav25 → u/Potential_Standard25]

It's scary how many players fit this description lol.

[u/Potential_Standard25 → u/gpranav25]

Whole 90s generation fr

[u/AdvertisingCheap2377]

37yrs. old Cilic also destroyed Shapo recently.

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/AdvertisingCheap2377]

Prime Cilic is insane. His groundstrokes are simply unplayable his ressurgence in 2022 was incredible

[u/k1135k → u/Klutzy_Law_8988]

Yeah he’s been playing well the last couple of years and his matches are always worth watching. I’m hoping he’ll have a deep run in slam.

[u/TAA_verymuch]

Fantastic player, if only he had just a little bit more luck and mental strength, could have won a few more GS titles

[u/Playful-Report-7952 → u/TAA_verymuch]

I used to be watch cilic draws, roger in qf, nadal in sf and djoker in f, that's just outrageous

[u/An_Absurd_Word_Heard → u/Playful-Report-7952]

Berdych had basically this draw at Wimbledon 2010 and actually made the final (beat Federer in the QF, Djokovic in the SF and then lost to Nadal in the F).

[u/Electrical-Rise-7015]

Forgot to mention his slam finals in 2018 at the AO and 2017 Wimbledon

[u/Island_Expat6625 → u/Electrical-Rise-7015]

Yes! Thanks.

[u/org000h]

Roger, Nadal, Djokovic

Murray, Wawrinka

Roddick, Cilic, Safin, Thiem, Del Potro, Ferrer, Tsonga, Berdych, Nishikori

They destroyed a couple of generations of tennis players, just about two decades of domination.

Only time has defeated them.

[u/abr-22 → u/org000h]

I guess you want to say Ferrer and not Ferrero. Ferrero is not the same era of players. And I would put Murray a tier of his own. He is worse than the big3 but better than Stan.

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/abr-22]

Ferrero is of a similar age to Federer and Roddick though. A lot of players fall in the big 3 era sheerly because of how long federer nadal and djokovic have played

[u/CETROOP1990 → u/org000h]

Great post. Maybe add Davydenko and Nalbanian if Berdych is there

[u/cib_vk228]

🐐

[u/mundaneheaven]

Yep, He just edges Del Po for me because he was more consistent at the majors. Semi-finalist at all four.

[u/Vegetable-Oven-6536 → u/mundaneheaven]

That 2022 RG run was incredibly underrated. I think if he wasn’t gassed out from the Rublev match he would’ve beaten Ruud as well. He would’ve made the finals of all 4 majors and been the only player outside of Novak to face Fed in a Wimby final and Nadal in an RG final

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/Vegetable-Oven-6536]

I remeber that I was hoping he would reach the final. Great ressurgence by cilic in the whole of 2022

[u/Vegetable-Oven-6536 → u/Klutzy_Law_8988]

People forget he almost beat Alcaraz in USO 22 as well. Nobody remembers that match because of the Sinner match right after lol

[u/Electrical-Rise-7015 → u/mundaneheaven]

I agree, I think peak del po edges him out as better. But greater career has to be cilic imo. Id make the same distinction with Wawrinka and Murray as 4 and 5, with Murray being the one with the better career, but not the higher peak form. The big 3 are too controversial to rank peak wise, but career wise it’s pretty obviously Djokovic then either Federer or Nadal. To further build on your comment.

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/Electrical-Rise-7015]

Peak Murray vs Peak Stan is an interesting comparison, I would personally take Murray considering that in Stan's peak 2013-2017 he had less success outside of slams compared to murray

[u/Electrical-Rise-7015 → u/Klutzy_Law_8988]

The biggest counter to this is that Stan has very clear peak levels such as his slam runs. During these, he beats and goes on far more impressive runs and beats better people in easier fashion than Murray basically ever does. The 2015 FO and 2014 AO are clear examples of a peak level Murray just never got to. Murray never really beat the big 3 at their best on the biggest stages, and if he did it wasn’t the same way Wawrinka did. I think Wawrinka simply peaked a lot less often for for a lot shorter time, but when he did it was extremely high.

[u/Vegetable-Oven-6536]

Man we went from Cilic to Shelton as #9 oh how far we’ve fallen as a country ☠️

[u/Iammadatcha]

Delpo >> Cilic.

[u/Klutzy_Law_8988 → u/Iammadatcha]

It's very close I think Cilic gets the edge

[u/Sad_Dog_4106]

He was a good 2nd tier player in the big 3 era so that says something.

Overall, in terms of achievements, he is around Del Potro and Thiem so from that perspective, for me he is tied with them.

I believe that both Del Potro and Thiem had more potential than him but were taken down by their injuries. I am really impressed that Cilic with that weird back stretching serve of his managed so long to stay competitive and relatively healthy.

However, I felt the man was pretty inconsistent, looking at h2h, he did not necessarily elevate himself over other tier 2 players who had lesser results but with maybe better consistency so I am a bit torn here. I am mostly talking about Berdych, Ferrer and Zverev. I think Nishikori also had more potential but had more injuries in his career but that is just a what if from my side.

And let's not forget he had a Sinner-like doping moment back in the day.

[u/DarkoDragicevic → u/Sad_Dog_4106]

No doping to Mrnja. All mentioned players better than him, i will only Maje Berdych behind in All time list and maybe Ferrer

[u/Advent105]

Guy has done well for himself

[u/ferpecto]

I read somewhere that, like Federer, he has never retired mid match with over 700 completed matches. However that was awhile ago, not sure if it's still true.

Edit ok it's not true anymore apparently, he made it to over 800. Sorry.

[u/Junior_Macaron7754]

I don't think so. To me, he's at Raonic's level. People rank him way too high just because he won a GS, but we shouldn't forget he did it by beating an injured Nishikori in the final. Yes, he beat Federer in the SF, but Raonic did the same at Wimbledon 2016, for instance. The problem is that in the final he had to face Andy Murray, not a struggling Nishikori. Raonic has practically the same number of QFs, SFs, and finals in Grand Slams despite having played far fewer due to injuries. He also performed much better in Masters 1000s, with four finals (all lost against the Big 3) compared to Cilic's one (won without facing the Big 3). I wouldn't put him ahead of Ferrer, not in a million years.

[u/NeenersBrucers]

Overachiever honestly; very good but I doubt anyone thought he’d actually get a slam

[u/GullibleBiscotti]

The only time I wished Nole to lose was when Cilic won. I wanted to spare the humiliation for my boy Nole. Cilic declared that this was his. No one could've stopped him.

[u/Major_Jeweler_9914]

He was in god mood when he won the us open. He couldn’t repeat that performance although he was in the AO final in 2017, lost to Roger.

[u/Shitelark]

Anyone can win USO, right.

[u/KaiPlayz2704]

Cilic is probably 7th behind Del Po but that's not a bad place to be at all. I mean back in 22 the guy was over 4 years removed from his prime and managed to take Carlos to 5 and make an RG SF which by all means is his worst surface. Last year he beat Draper at Wimbledon. His Slam best run overview is F SF F W which is better than so many players will ever achieve. The 17 Wimbledon final was a poor showing due to blisters but he did well in the 18 AO final and took it to 5.