Marin Cilic becomes first home player to win Croatia Open – Tennis Special
Croatian number one, Marin Cilic, became the first home champion in the last 22-years by beating Marcel Granollers of Spain in the final of Croatia Open in Umag on Sunday.
The only previous Croatian player to win here was Goran Prpic, who captured the title in the first edition of the tournament by beating his compatriot, Goran Ivanisevic, in three sets 6–3, 4–6, 6–4 in the final.
Both the finalists were local payers in the inaugural event but none reached even the title match in the following 20 years. Cilic reached the final in 2011 but he was beaten by Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine in three sets 6–4,
3–6, 6–3.
However, Cilic made sure that the curse does not remain intact anymore, as he broke the deadlock this time by beating the fourth seeded Spaniard in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in the title match, winning his second crown of the season.
The second seed needed an hour and 32 minutes to topple his Spanish opponent in a one sided encounter.
The Croatian has entered the list of champions, which has many big names in it including Thomas Muster, Carlos Moya, Marcelo Rios, Guillermo Coria, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nikolay Davydenko and many others. Moya has won the Croatia
Open title most number of times with five. Muster is on the second position with three wins.
During the post match press conference, a jubilant Cilic said, “It’s a real privilege to be among these champions. It was really special this week. I played great tennis and I was enjoying every moment in my matches. I’m really
glad I won for my supporters, my team and myself.”
The Croatian faced some difficulty at the start but bounced back afterwards to dominate completely and dispose off his Spanish rival.
In the first set, Cilic and Granollers won their opening serves, taking the score to 1-1. The Spaniard hit a blow to Cilic in the third game and consolidated on it to move ahead 3-1. Granollers maintained his lead till 4-2 but
it was all Cilic show later on, as he grabbed four straight games to triumph 6-4.
Cilic cruised through the second set, winning opening five games to race to a 5-0 advantage. Granollers came up with a little resistance at the end, as he snatched two straight games to reduce his trail to 2-5 but Cilic hit the
final blow to win it 6-2.
Commenting on Granollers game, the Croatian added, “Marcel is a really dangerous player, so it was not easy in the beginning. He was playing really well and not giving me too much. After I found some solutions, I kept with him
and played great tennis. It was maybe my best match of the week. I had a streak of winning nine games in a row, so that was amazing.”
This was Cilic’s eighth title of his career, winning the third one in his own country. He had won PBZ Zagreb Indoors in two consecutive years before this Croatia Open crown.
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