Marin Cilic had a dream run in the Australian Open 2018 as the Croatian gave a tough time to his opponents on the court. Thanks to this marvellous run, he gained 1,155 points and is now only behind Rafael Nadal and Swiss great Roger Federer in the ATP World rankings.
The glorious journey of becoming World No. 3 started a long time back, where he won the ATP 250 Istanbul Open in May, beating the tournament’s top seed Milos Raonic (7-6, 6-3).  He had a magnificent run in Wimbledon 2017, marching his way to the finals of the prestigious Grand Slam, however going down to Federer in straight sets! Marin Cilic looked in great form at the Tata Open Maharashtra before losing to the eventual Singles winner, Gilles Simon in the semi-finals. Though Cilic could not win the Singles title at Tata Open Maharashtra, he proved his mettle when he flew to Melbourne and breezed into the Australian Open Finals for the first time where he faced Roger Federer. Both players looked focused throughout the match as each point was hard earned. Roger Federer ultimately defended his Grand Slam title after winning the rip-roaring five-set encounter by 6-2, 7-6(7-5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Cilic has more reasons to celebrate as the Croatian jumped 3 places in the ATP World Rankings above Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem to achieve a career high world ranking of #3. Cilic said, "My ultimate goal is to reach No. 1. Even in these last one or two years, the progress that I did is big. Last year, I improved a lot in different areas. Now in these last couple months, I improved even more. So that gives me a big confidence."
The last two years have been fantastic for Cilic as he has worked hard on his game and will now try to close in the huge gap to the top two. We wish him all the best for the year ahead!