Greg Garber, Senior Writer 10y

The redemption of Marin Cilic

Tennis

NEW YORK -- When they came together at the net for the perfunctory ceremonial grip-and-grin, the height differential was striking, bordering on comical.

Kei Nishikori stands 5-feet-10, while Marin Cilic is a willowy 6-6. According to the ATP World Tour, those eight inches were the biggest disparity ever between combatants in an Open era Grand Slam final.

Size and strength doesn't always determine a tennis result, but Monday on Arthur Ashe Stadium it did. In much the same manner that Serena Williams crunched Caroline Wozniacki in the women's final, Cilic beat Nishikori with 17 aces, overpowering pace and consistent depth.

This flat 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 US Open final even featured a few drop shots and lobs from the diverse tool box of Cilic.

And so, in the first meeting of rookie Grand Slam finalists in nine years, Cilic was by far the better of the double-digit seeds in a match that required less than two hours. At the age of 25, after sitting out this tournament last year while serving a drug suspension, Cilic is an unlooked-for major champion.

The emotional scream he unleashed when it was over underlined just how far he has come under his coach, Goran Ivanisevic.

"I think this is all hard work in these last several years," Cilic said in his on-court interview. "Most important of all the thing [Ivanisevic] brought to me was joy in tennis, always having fun.

"I enjoyed my best tennis over here, and played the best tennis in my life."

Cilic will see his ranking rise to No. 9, equaling a career high. How much of a long shot was he? The official odds against Cilic winning were 100-1, and now he's the first No. 14 seed in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title.

In the second-level competition, Cilic equaled the single Slam achievement of Ivanisevic. Nishikori's coach, Michael Chang, will have to wait until at least next January to see his pupil equal his total of one.

Nishikori, the No. 10 seed, was attempting to become the first Japanese player and first Asian man to win a Grand Slam. After having a cyst removed from his foot in August, he nearly sat this tournament out. Coming in with very little practice, he took out three of the top five seeds, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic. The last player to do that? Mats Wilander, on the way to the 1982 title at Roland Garros.

Perhaps more important, a pair of four-hour, five-set victories over Wawrinka and Raonic changed the way the tennis world views the famously fragile Nishikori.

"He was playing really well -- I couldn't play my tennis," Nishikori said. "It's a really tough loss, but really happy to come to the final."

Coming in, it looked like a fair fight.

Nishikori had won five of seven career matches between them, including both matches played this year, in Brisbane and Barcelona. However, they had split their matches at the 2010 and 2012 US Opens.

Cilic came out firing, big forehands and bigger serves. Those free points gave him a comfortable margin. But what earned him the first set was his backhand slice. The first one drew a Nishikori forehand into the net to deliver three break points. The second induced another Nishikori forehand error that delivered the break for a 4-2 Cilic lead.

In the end, Nishikori seemed to hit the wall that seemed inevitable after those two monster matches.

Cilic credits Ivanisevic with improving his serve and that, in turn, has led to greater confidence. Last year, Cilic stroked 301 aces. This year, the number is past 650, by far a career high. He's also winning 80 percent of his serves, the best mark of his career.

If they played in a different era, perhaps they would already own multiple Grand Slam singles trophies. But Cilic and Nishikori have the personal misfortune to live in this golden time of men's tennis. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic have won a combined 38 major titles and, until Monday, neither Cilic nor Nishikori had even played in a Grand Slam final.

Future historians, looking for forensic evidence of a turning point, would be wise to note that this was the first major final without any of the Big Three. With this final, Cilic and Nishikori will soon learn about the keenest pressures of expectation.

Nishikori, like Andy Murray, is dogged on an almost daily basis by a hoard of journalists, bringing the minutiae of his every moment to a nation hungry for its first Grand Slam singles champion. Murray became the first British man in 77 years to win at the All England Club and relieved some of the media madness.

Fifteen minutes before the 11 a.m. US Open shuttle left midtown Manhattan -- more than six hours before the men's final -- there were already six journalists on the bus. All of them were Japanese, and they talked excitedly about Nishikori's chances.

There is no Grand Slam played in Japan, but this country with a population of 127 million avidly follows the sport. The people know Nishikori's backstory: He arrived at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Bradenton, Florida, at the age of 14 without knowing how to speak a single word of English. He was sponsored by Sony CEO Masaaki Morita, and his nickname soon became "Project 45." That's because Shuzo Matsuoka, the highest-ranked Japanese man, had achieved an ATP World Tour ranking of No. 46.

Turns out, they underestimated Nishikori; a decade later, he is now the No. 8 player in the world, a career high. This year at the US Open, there are 21 news-gathering organizations credentialed from Japan, with 47 writers and photographers. After Nishikori won his quarterfinal match, an additional 15 writers and photographers arrived. WOWOW, the Japanese equivalent of ESPN, has more than 50 credentials.

Cilic, meanwhile, comes from Croatia, a country with a modest population of 4.3 million, roughly the same as Kentucky.

There are zero accredited journalists here from Croatia.

Although he's not functioning in a vacuum, there is far less external pressure on Cilic. Most of his drive comes from within.

A year ago, he was banned from the ATP World Tour, serving a doping suspension. In February, in an interview with ESPN.com, he talked about how important this season was after four months on the sidelines.

"Extremely important," Cilic said. "I'm really eager to play well. My goals are to be back, obviously, in the top 10. I want to win a Grand Slam and I am working on that. But I have to stay on the ground and take it set by set and tournament by tournament.

"It's definitely going to take some time, but I feel with Goran and my team around me, I can do it."

Nine months later, the promise that flashed four years ago when Cilic reached the semifinals of the Australian Open has been realized. He's ranked a career-high No. 5 and, like Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, going forward, he'll believe that major titles are his right.

And, perhaps, the rest of the field will feel that way, too.

"Everything I was working for, the dream came today," Cilic said. "For the other players, it's a sign. If you're working hard, you can do it."

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