DUBAI: Not long after his two-hours and 15-minutes on court, a sweat-drenched Marin Cilic chased after his sons Baldo and Vito, who stomped the manicured lawns of the Irish Village, tennis ball in hand. "He's good, good coordination," Cilic said, pointing at his firstborn, five-year-old Baldo.
The 36-year-old - the 2014 US Open champion, finalist at Wimbledon (2017), and the Australian Open (2018) - is coming back from knee surgery which he underwent last May.
Cilic started last year ranked outside the 1000 mark and arrived at the Dubai Duty Free tennis championships at No.186. He has been making his moves this week, following up his first top-10 win in three years against the world No.8 Alex de Minaur in the first round, with another strong performance when he beat the world No.27 Alexei Popyrin to make the last-eight. Wednesday's 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win takes Cilic to No.141 in the ATP Rankings.
Next up for Cilic, who is playing here with his protected ranking of 20, is Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime, against whom he leads the head-to-head 3-1, though the 24-year-old world No.21 won their last meeting three years ago. Cilic, who has struggled with his knee (right) for the last three years, went under the scalpel in 2023, but didn't find relief until last May.
"I was trying for a year and four months to come back, I faced a lot of ups and downs, I lost hope and then I decided in the spring of last year to have another surgery," he said. "I saw dozens and dozens of doctors and in the end I made the right choice."
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