MELBOURNE – Marin Cilic is not the type of player that will electrify the crowd or sell out stadiums, but this tall gentleman from Croatia is surely an incredible tennis champion that can beat anybody on any given day when he plays his best tennis. As a matter of fact, he has already defeated everybody on tour, even the best and most decorated players in the world. A US Open title in 2014, a Wimbledon final in 2017 and an Australian Open final or title in 2018 are certainly an excellent record.
Marin grew up as a tennis player with Bob Brett, the same coach that helped Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic become incredible champions. Marin has spent nine years with Bob at the Bordighera Tennis Academy in Italy.
“I learnt a lot in Italy working with Bob, not only about tennis, but also about life in general. I wouldn’t be the player that I am today if it wasn’t for Bob. He was actually in Melbourne this week and came to some of my matches,” Cilic said.
Last night Cilic advanced to his third Grand Slam final cruising past Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in a match that the big Croatian dominated from start to finish.
The two women’s semifinals were certainly more exciting that the first men’s semifinal. World No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki took on the surprising Elise Mertens of Belgium, who was the only player to advance to the semis without dropping a set. Mertens regularly trains at Kim Clijsters’ tennis academy in Belgium and Caroline was extremely worried about the match-up: The Dane never won a match against Kim in three attempts.
Wozniacki prevailed over Mertens with the score of 6-3, 7-6 and advanced to her third Grand Slam final.
The second women’s semifinal between world No. 1 Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber was probably the most incredible and entertaining match of the tournament. The two rivals battled for three long sets that saw both players trading match-points deep in the third. Halep failed to capitalize on two match-points when Kerber was serving at 4-5, then Kerber didn’t convert two match-points herself when serving for the match at 6-5. Finally, the Romanian managed to close out the match with the final score of 6-3, 4-6, 9-7.
The final will feature Halep and Wozniacki in a match that presents plenty of interesting situations:
- It will be world No. 1 vs. No. 2.
- The champion will be No. 1 in the world on Monday.
- A victory will represent the long-awaited first Grand Slam title for one of the two girls.
- Both players saved match-points on their road to the final, with Halep saving match-points in two separate matches – against Davis in the third round and against Kerber in the semifinals.
- This will be the first Australian Open final for both girls, who have each competed in two other Grand Slam finals without capturing any title.
Tonight, the second men’s semifinal will feature the generational clash between Roger Federer and Hyeon Chung. Yesterday I discovered that the South African coach Neville Godwin started to work with Chung after ending his coaching engagement with Kevin Anderson and negotiating a deal with IMG. When Godwin was playing on the ATP Tour, he was coached by Craig Tiley, who today is the Australian Open tournament director.
Federer is the overwhelming favorite not only to advance to the final, but to capture the title on Sunday. 21-year-old Chung shouldn’t be underestimated though. Do you remember when 17-year-old Michael Chang – who was of Asian origin, despite representing the United States – drove world No. 1 Ivan Lendl crazy and eventually defeated him at the 1989 French Open? We hope that Roger doesn’t remember what happened that day.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
