MarinCilic

When the first tennis courts in his hometown were built in 1991, Marin Cilic and his friends were among the first to play on them. Cilic, also known as Chila, started playing tennis at age 7 with his cousin, Tanja. He has three brothers: Vinko, Goran, and Mile (the latter of whom he regularly consults for excellent advice) and his father was highly encouraging of the boys’ sports endeavors given that he didn’t grow up with the same opportunities. Marin moved to San Remo, Italy at the age of 15 to work with his former coach Bob Brett and focus on turning pro. In 2010 he started making strides on tour reaching the Australian Open Men's Semifinal and reaching the ATP top 10 rankings. Later he would breakthrough to win his first grand slam in 2014 at the US Open defeating Roger Federer in the Semis and Kei Nishikori in the Final. He later would follow this up reaching the Men's Singles final of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and 2018 Australian Open. 2018 he also finished the year helping Croatia lift the Davis Cup trophy clinching with wins over Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Lucas Pouille. He enjoys playing on all surfaces, but says hard and grass are best-suited surfaces for him. In 2016 he established the Marin Cilic Foundation to help kids in underprivileged areas have better opportunities in education and sports and won the 2016 Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award for his hard work. In 2018 he married girlfriend Kristina Milkovic.