Marin Cilic is looking to end the season in the top five in the world as he leads a strong field in Tokyo this week.
The Croatian is the top seed in Tokyo this week, where he has reached the semi-finals twice before. Other stars that join him in the field include Kei Nishikori, Diego Schwartzman, Milos Raonic and Kevin Anderson.
However beyond winning this tournament the world number six has other goals that he wants to achieve at the end of the season, which includes finishing in the top five of the world rankings, “It’s going to be an interesting end of the year,” Cilic explained.
“My goal, as in the beginning of the year, is to try to finish in the Top 5 [of the ATP Rankings] at the end of the season and still again hoping that I can make the [Nitto ATP] Finals for the fourth time. Even though it’s going to be a busy schedule, I’m trying to focus on taking it step by step, week by week, trying not to look too much in front.”
The Croatian will have to have a strong end to the season if he wants to finish in the top five as he currently sits 175 points behind Alexander Zverev. As for his hopes for reaching the Nitto ATP Finals, he currently sits in sixth place and looks set to make his fourth appearance at the O2 Arena in November.
As well as talking about his goals, the Croatian also spoke to the ATP website about his past experiences in Japan and how they will help him this week, “The last couple of years were quite successful,” Cilic stated.
“I haven’t made it to the last step of the tournament. But last year, playing the semis was still a very good result and hopefully this year I can go one or two steps further. That would be a great result. [I’m] still hoping that I can play well. Again this year it’s a great field of players. It’s going to be a very interesting tournament and we’ll see how it’s going to unfold.”
The former US Open champion will look to win his first title in Tokyo this week when he starts his campaign against Jan-Lennard Struff on Tuesday.
