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BNP PARIBAS MASTERS PARIS

November 3, 2016

Marin Cilic

Paris, France

M. CILIC/D. Goffin

6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. You have made it to the ATP World Tour Finals. I guess you wouldn't have expected that halfway through the year.
MARIN CILIC: Well, I was expecting it. That's what I was playing for. Definitely was a bit different second part of the year than the first one and played really well obviously in these last few months and last couple of weeks, just showing that I'm keeping this good form from the summer and winning a lot of matches, which is quite important.

You know, this battle for London, I have been already few years in it. You can say I'm getting experienced in that, so it's something that is giving me a lot of confidence.

You know, matches like today are definitely something that I can look up to and, you know, learn from these kind of matches, playing under pressure. Also, for me and for David, it was a big match, for sure.

I would say that he was a little bit more under pressure as he didn't have a choice, just to win. It was, I think, a very, very high-quality match from both sides.

Q. What made you click after, let's say, July/August in the second half of the year?
MARIN CILIC: I felt that I played even well in, you know, in grass court season. In Wimbledon I played really well. It was just unfortunate not to go through in the quarters.

Later we had Davis Cup and, you know, Olympics I also played okay. Lost to Monfils there, tight match. Then Cincinnati played well. I think all summer I was playing really good.

I'm really glad to see that I found this consistency in my tennis and keeping in that for quite a long period of time, especially at this big tournaments like here, like last week in Basel. It's, you know, for me one step forward in my career and in my tennis, for sure.

Q. You picked a good moment to get this first win against David. What do you think made the difference today? Maybe you were more aggressive than past few times?
MARIN CILIC: Well, it's -- I don't know what to say in that I felt like obviously, you know, the start of the match is gonna be quite important. We played three times. I mean, this match now, the last one in Tokyo I started also quite well. I was serving for the first set, and then over there lost that momentum. After, it was David who was playing quite well and I was the one who was catching it up.

Here I was just trying to be focused on getting the lead and getting to play my game. And obviously to play aggressive, but still not too aggressive.

David is a great player off the baseline. I mean, you could see that, as well, today. We exchanged few breaks in that first set. Not that I played bad in those games. I mean, just the level was quite, quite high.

And then I think overall with the game a bit more confident this week coming from last week's win. I think I made some good decisions in the match. Even in the tiebreak you could see I was even not converting those match points, but I still was going for my shots. That's, I think, one of the critical parts of my game.

Q. Obviously a big Davis Cup year for you. You're probably aware that there are some suggestions around that future format for the Davis Cup should have it just in one fixed city for maybe three years, a sort of neutral venue probably.
I'm just wondering what your feelings are about that, whether you think that's a good idea or not, whether it's more likely to make you play Davis Cup in the future or not.

MARIN CILIC: Yes, I heard about that, even from the president of the ITF. He was in Tokyo. He mentioned that to me.

But I was thinking that, you know, this idea could be to play Final Four in one city, and that was the thing that most of the players also wanted to see to, you know, have one week extra for themselves in the season, you know, to shorten the season of the Davis Cup, and that was the plan in the beginning and in talks between the players and the ITF.

And then in the end, seeing this as they are trying to find a neutral ground just for the final, I mean, in my own idea and my own opinion, I don't think it's good. I don't think it's gonna help the players. I don't think it's gonna help the nations that are playing. Is it gonna help the popularity of tennis? Maybe.

But maybe overall for the players and for the issues that players had, I don't think it's gonna make any difference. If not, it's gonna be tougher.

Q. You're back up to No. 8 in the world now. How challenging is it to stay in the top 10?
MARIN CILIC: Extremely challenging. There are a lot of obviously great players that are not in top 10, as well. You have to keep improving week after week, and obviously to play consistently well on these tournaments and big tournaments.

And it's great end of the season for me. I just want to keep going and to use this good form as much as I can, not to stop and to play well, to continue to play well here and London and Zagreb, as well, for the final, Davis Cup.

Q. What's your opinion about No. 1 race between Novak and Andy?
MARIN CILIC: It's very interesting, obviously. Very interesting for us players to watch, to see that battle between two of them. It's great that Andy had amazing season, amazing last six months, and definitely very, very interesting to see how the outcome of the tournament over here is going to end, and London, as well.

I mean, I think very, very positive for the tennis, for the players, as well, for the fans, and it's gonna be really exciting.

Q. I haven't seen Jonas here with you. How is that going? Will he be in London?
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, he'll be there in London. I was mentioning that few times, that he was -- you know, just when we were even talking and discussing the relationship together.

He was already quite busy for the end of the year, but I accepted that, and we found a few weeks that he's gonna be able to work with me and, I mean, one, two weeks he's gonna be free. So it's great to see that.

Q. Has he helped especially in one or two areas of your game already?
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, I mean, we are talking every day, you know, in contact. He's watching all my matches. We are discussing a little bit my game, what to do on the court, a little bit of tactics, what to think about.

You can see already the progress in my game, which is great, but also, Ivan, the coach, who is here with me, as well, he's doing great job. I think the two of them are going to be working also quite well together.

Q. Tomorrow you play -- it could be Dimitrov, but let's assume it's Djokovic. Obviously you know him very well, a lot of long matches over your career. How do you go into a match like that?
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, as you say, we'll see the outcome of that match. But if it's Novak, you know, I have obviously a tough record against him, but every match is a new match. It's just part of the statistics. You know, it's obviously that he likes to play me, or if you want to put it around differently, I don't like to play him as much.

But, you know, I'm confident about that. If it happens, it's a new match, it's a different, obviously, conditions always. It's a different matchup. These next few weeks for him are a bit more pressuring with the battle, and then also for me, in the other hand, I'm in good form, very confident. I guess it's always interesting to see.

Q. In the beginning you said about ATP finals, you said you are playing for. Is that something you take it as a consequence of good season or you take it as like one of the goals over the beginning of the season to reach the ATP finals?
MARIN CILIC: That was the goal of the season for me, to reach the Tour finals in London. Obviously top 8 in the world, that's something all the players in the world are wishing for. It's one of the best tournaments in the world, for sure, to battle it out with best ones in the world in that kind of a format.

It's definitely something special, so it's great for me that I achieved it, especially in this kind of way in these last few weeks. I earned it, and that's, for me, even bigger plus.

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