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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS

November 18, 2016

Marin Cilic

London, England, United Kingdom

M. CILIC/K. Nishikori

3-6, 6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Good to end the week on a victory, especially going into next week.
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, definitely happy with victory obviously. It's great to finish the World Tour Finals like this, especially the way I played in the last two sets. Felt during the week I played pretty good in both of those matches with Andy and with Stan, just missing opportunities and decision making, wasn't making the right decisions.

Overall today I felt I was playing really, really good. I did the things quite well on the court. Of course, happy with the victory. It was a lot of things for me at stake, playing for No. 6 position at the end of the season. Definitely extremely proud for that.

Q. Very impressive second and third set. How did you turn around the match? Change from Kei's side performance-wise?
MARIN CILIC: I would say that Kei played really, really good in that first set, especially off the ground. I think he was not missing much. He was hitting quite aggressively. Even served quite well. On I think two occasions I was 15-30 up on his serve, and both of those times he came up with a great first serve.

I tried to obviously regroup for the beginning of the second set. I felt that I started to serve a bit better in the beginning of the second set, and obviously till the end of the match. My returns started to be better. Obviously when I got that first break, it was a little bit of a shift in the momentum.

Q. Given the fact knowing you cannot be qualified for the semis, but at the same time you have a good chance to be No. 6, what was your mindset coming to this match? Positive or relaxed or...
MARIN CILIC: It wasn't easy also losing first two matches, especially with Stan, losing two tiebreaks. In that match I felt like I deserved to go to a third. I played quite a good match.

It was not easy to stay positive and stay motivated. End of the year obviously the body's feeling a little bit tired. I had to obviously find good energy for today, good motivation.

At the end of the day I was definitely thinking about that win for the No. 6 position. My best ranking is No. 7. To be able to lift that up on this kind of a tournament, it means a lot. For sure, with that good motivation, I found good energy also in the court after losing that first set to be able to turn it around.

Q. You're up to 6 now. What is your target for next year?
MARIN CILIC: Definitely to go get to the top five. That's quite obvious. I was mentioning my goal is to win a Grand Slam. I feel I'm on a very good level. I'm very competitive with all of the guys. I also managed to beat Novak, which is quite big for me, also at the tournament that at the end of the year is quite big in Paris.

Definitely my mindset is very strong and very positive. I can't be happier than to obviously get to this position the way I played the last few months.

Q. Tell us how excited you are to be playing at home in the Davis Cup Final next week and what kind of threat do you think Argentina will pose to you guys.
MARIN CILIC: I'm extremely excited obviously now. A little bit more positive finishing here the tournament with a win. Not many guys are going to do that. That's extremely a good thing for me.

Playing now at home, I guess it's going to be extremely exciting for the fans, for the players, for both teams. I think the teams are going to make the big difference. The team energy, the team spirit from both teams, I think they were great this year. I know Argentina is going to be quite motivated for the final. We have to do the same in our team.

Just hoping that our crowd is going to help us and lead us to the win.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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