Marin Cilic described the process he has been on preparing for his comeback to the ATP tour as the Croatian takes on Carlos Alcaraz in Doha.
The Croatian has had a long journey back to the ATP tour after suffering multiple injuries especially in the knee area.
However Cilic is now ready to do some damage on the tour as his career slowly comes to an end after a 20 year long career.
Speaking to the ATP website, the former US Open reflected on his battle to comeback to the tour and enjoying the process along the way, “On most occasions it was quite easy, but there are occasions where you start to question yourself and ask, ‘Is this really worth it, is there any chance for me to come back?’ You try for months, then it doesn’t work,” Cilic explained.
“Then try again and it doesn’t work. Try again. It doesn’t work. You sort of lift your hopes and it doesn’t work. It was a little bit of a battle with those kinds of things. But overall, my feeling was that I would love to come back, give myself another shot to play a couple more seasons, as I feel that I can be competitive again. I love to train. I love this process of improving and getting better day by day, being diligent with your routines, with training.
“Trying to get better in everything. So it was, in one way, a challenging part, but also a fun thing to experience.”
The main achievement of Cilic’s comeback was his title at the ATP 250 event in Hangzhou in September where he defeated Zhizhen Zhang in the final.
After achieving his 21st tour title Cilic admitted it was a difficult week and spoke about what it meant to him to win in Hangzhou, “It did feel different. It was such a long, troubled way to that title, such a huge gap where I hadn’t had continuous tournaments to play,” the Croatian stated.
“I tried on a couple of occasions to come back, and it wasn’t working. For me, the overall feeling was great joy for my team, because they were with me, supporting, working with me, going through this process while not knowing if it’s going to be good enough, if my knee is going to be well again and that I can play back on the Tour competitively.
“When you come back in such a way, especially to win the title, it’s just a huge confidence boost. I’ve been many years on the Tour, and I want to say that I got used to playing in these later stages of tournaments, but this one felt extremely special for the team.”
The next step for Cilic is to continue his success in 2025 and in his first tournament of the season, the Croatian will take on Carlos Alcaraz.
Alcaraz recently won the title in Rotterdam and Cilic knows the task that awaits him in Doha, “An interesting setup, how the pieces fall into their spaces. What a way to start the year for me. The first match of the year to play Carlos. What a way to set the tone for the year and hopefully I can play many more against the top guys on the Tour,” Cilic stated.
“It’s always great fun, a great challenge. I played Carlos a few times. We played last at the 2022 US Open, when he became No. 1 after winning the title. Obviously, he improved so much in these last couple of seasons, he has had an incredible trajectory up. I love to watch him, also as a spectator, but it’s going be great fun for me to play him and to start the season like this.
“Obviously I’ve been watching quite a few of his matches in these past two, two and a half seasons, and he has had incredible success, now also winning Rotterdam [two weeks ago]. We know everything about Carlos, nothing to add there. We know how creative, how fantastic a player he is, and that he is one of the best, one of the ones that is going to be leading the Tour in years to come.
“So I definitely need to be at the top of my game to compete.”
The match will take place on Monday afternoon at 14:30 GMT.
