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AEGON CHAMPIONSHIP

June 24, 2017

Marin Cilic

London, England

M. CILIC/G. Muller

6-3, 5-7, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Third set, seventh game, take us through the break.
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, well, even in the first set, second set, creating a lot of opportunities, and then also third set, first game, had Love-40. Didn't convert. He had two aces there and we had a rally where he hit the line, so it was not easy to stay calm in those situations.

But with that constant pressure, definitely it helped that I was creating that many opportunities. Definitely it was important to stay calm and wait for my chance that something opens up.

So at that game, definitely I returned really well. I played a few quite good points, and there was a break. So quite critical, especially as Gilles was playing really confident throughout all the match. Considering that he had a lot of wins now in a row, so that was quite understandable and extremely high-level tennis throughout the match.

Q. You have obviously won the title here before, but the circumstances of that final were quite strange. Would it be better for you or more fulfilling to kind of win the final playing the full match?
MARIN CILIC: A title is a title (smiling). They still say 17 titles. They don't say 16 1/2. For me it's great to be back in the final third time here playing great tennis, and also again today continued my good form. Definitely tomorrow gonna go into the match quite confident with my tennis and just hoping to lift the trophy again.

Q. A few words about tomorrow against Lopez. He's in great shape too?
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, very known to play on grass extremely good. That's obviously his, let's say his favorite surface. We played now a few weeks ago in Paris. Heavy conditions there. We played on Suzanne Lenglen. It was a cold day, heavy conditions.

It was easier for me to neutralize him, neutralize his serve. I guess that was the biggest difference in the match.

And then for tomorrow, it's going to be -- we played I think last year here in the first round, as well, and a few years back. Both of those matches were quite tight. Just a couple of points that made the difference.

I think also Feli is playing with good confidence. Played last week in the final. For me it's still extremely important to keep up with my good tennis and keep myself on the track.

Q. Rain decided that you may have to play three matches tomorrow. Does that worry you in any way? Or maybe you can use end of the semifinals as a warmup?
MARIN CILIC: You know, singles are going to be first, anyhow. That's not going to make much of a difference. Now in the afternoon we didn't play too long. It was quite quick. And usually in doubles, you know, there are a little bit -- points are a little bit shorter. It was actually not bad to play a bit.

Q. You appeared to be quite animated today. How nervous were you feeling?
MARIN CILIC: I wasn't nervous. I don't think I had much of nerves. I opened the match really good, served well throughout most of the match.

I lost serve once. Really kept my tennis on a really high level. Played aggressive. Mixed up my serve quite good. That was extremely important.

Q. (Question about dropping the second set.)
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, well, I took -- looking at objectively, I had, in -- I had five service games in the first set and six in the second. So out of 11 in today's match I made just one bad game. So that wasn't to take as a bad play. It just happened Gilles connected on a couple of second-serve returns really good and got a break.

So for me it was focus to get back to my routine, try to serve a little bit higher percentage of first serve in that third set, and just to get few games in a row to get back on track.

Q. You were more vocal today. We could hear the "Got it" on your points. Was that more for yourself to pump yourself up or a little bit of a message to your opponent as well?
MARIN CILIC: A little bit -- for myself. In these kind of matches, one point can make such a huge difference. And with that, I was just keeping myself alert and ready for the chances.

You know, that was keeping me in the game, you know. Playing against big servers, you don't have too many rallies. Sometimes can get a little bit -- with the tempo of the game can be slowed down a lot, so you are not moving much.

Then you just need to -- I think that's what I do for myself, just to be a little bit more alert.

Q. Changing the subject slightly, I presume you saw the news about Dan Evans yesterday testing positive for cocaine. You, back in 2013, had a shorter ban under different circumstances, but I was just wondering if you could reflect on how difficult that period was away from the game that you had to spend away where you couldn't play, and do you have any thoughts on his own way of getting back into the game after whatever length of ban it would be?
MARIN CILIC: For Evans, I heard. I don't know any details about it, so I can't comment anything about that. That's all. I'm here focused on the tournament and that's where my focus is.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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