Marin Cilic must be the most unpredictable of tennis’ major men’s champions. Except maybe the direction of his second serve.
The lean, tall and sometimes mean-looking Croatian looked like he didn’t even belong on the same court with the great Roger Federer in the first set of Sunday’s Australian Open final.
Cilic then turned it around and played wondrous tennis to win the second set. He was in the battle the entire set, showing his “war face”, then dominated the tiebreaker.
ANOTHER SECOND SERVE, PLEASE
Whatever Federer was thinking about at that time, the Swiss master stayed in his game. He continued to eat Cilic’s second serves alive, and sailed through the third set as expected.
Cilic went ballistic again. He seemed to be more worried about his rackets being restrung than his serves hitting the box. He made four straight unthinkable errors to drop service to open the fourth set.
Fed was cruising, up 3-1. The ESPN guys appeared ready to pack up and head back to the middle part of the world. Down Under was simply too hot, and Federer was frying Cilic’s big game.
PARTY APPEARED TO BE OVER EARLY
Just about the time the party appeared to be over for this Australian Open, Cilic regained his unpredictability and dominated Federer the last five games of the fourth set to even the match.
It looked like total war. So, it seemed everyone started believing in the 6-6 Croat and his awesome power. He looked like he could actually control those rockets that came off his racket.
By this time, no one was counting rackets. Cilic appeared ready to maybe join the select list of winners of multiple Grand Slam titles. And maybe that torrid run of his to the 2014 U.S. Open title wasn’t a fluke.
UNPREDICTABLE RETURNS
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that Cilic had pushed Rafa Nadal over the limit into retirement from this year’s Australian Open. Cilic could stand toe-to-toe with Federer and make the silky smooth Swiss great earn his 20th Grand Slam title after having to get by a string of virtually nobodies to reach this final.
But Mr. Unpredictable subbed for Cilic to start the fifth set. Three games into the deciding set, this version of Cilic had had more than his share of chances to be leading, even ahead 3-0. But he was down, 3-0.
Federer hadn’t done anything that outstanding, just taken what Cilic offered. Such as two unforced errors and a pair of double faults in losing serve in the second game of the fifth set.
THE GREAT FEDERER WASN’T GOING TO LOSE UP 3-0
With a 3-0 lead in his pocket, the mighty Federer wasn’t going to lose. And Cilic knew it. After holding service to close to 3-1, Cilic went meekly, winning only one point the rest of the way.
Just when it appeared to be over on Federer’s out-wide serve at love that was called good as
Cilic’s backhand dribbled into the net, Cilic demonstrated his unpredictability again.
He challenged. Federer bowed over, restraining himself from laughing out loud. He couldn’t believe it.
But all was good when the replay showed Federer’s serve nicking the outside of the line to complete his historic 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory and wrap up his quest for an unmatched 20th Grand Slam title.
James Beck is the long-time tennis columnist for the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier newspaper. He can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. See his Post and Courier columns at
