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ROLAND GARROS

June 2, 2018

Marin Cilic

Paris, France

M. CILIC/S. Johnson

6-3, 6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. That was a good win today. What pleased you most about your performance today?
MARIN CILIC: More or less everything. So everything felt quite good; movement, serving was great, very consistent serving. I don't know if he had any break points during the match, but I felt that I was controlling most of the points. When the ball would come into the rally, I think I was the one who was creating a lot of pressure. He was hitting obviously also some good shots off his forehand and served quite all right.

But I controlled it from the beginning until the end and was really good performance.

Q. When you're serving well and you feel in control of the game, how does that make you feel on court?
MARIN CILIC: Extremely confident. In general, when I'm controlling the points and dictating the play, I'm the one generally winning most of the points, so that's a great thing. And that's always the focus, to try to control the points, obviously to return as good as I can, and to, you know, with my serving, that I'm putting constantly pressure, even on the return games and on the serving games.

And today I was hitting the forehand really well. Hit a lot of winners. That was, you know, creating a lot of damage.

Q. And you have had a good week so far at Roland Garros. What would be your assessment of your first week here in general?
MARIN CILIC: Very pleased. I felt that I have played a good level of tennis, quite consistent. There were also few ups and downs during these three matches. You know, today probably the best one so far of the week, and that pleases me the most.

I feel physically well. I think I was serving really good throughout the whole week. Didn't lose too many points in my serve. Controlled a lot the rallies. And then used my forehand really well. I think I moved well. I think also generally looking I'm in a good position for the second week.

Q. I think you're due to play Fognini next who beat Kyle Edmund. He can be unpredictable. What challenges can he cause you?
MARIN CILIC: Yeah, obviously Fabi is amazing player on clay. We have seen during the years so many matches of him where he played great tennis, and again today, he has amazing battle with Kyle. I watched that in the sofa in the locker room for several hours as my court was going quite slow, and they had a big battle.

So definitely is going to be a big challenge, as well, for me to play him. He's one of the clay court specialists that we have on the tour. He likes also to play here. He likes the conditions. You know, I just hope that I'm going to be with my performance on a high level to serve as good as I served today.

So we will see. I hope that I'm going to be playing really well.

Q. I'd like to know, because you have done finals in Wimbledon, finals in Australia, here you have one quarterfinals and three last 16. So is clay for you the most difficult surface, you think? And having to play Fabio, is probably the worst surface for you against him? Would be much better everywhere else or not?
MARIN CILIC: Yeah. I have to say that the clay is not my best surface. I would say the most challenging one for me is, you know, just with the way I play. And also I'm a big guy. Is not easy for us to move that well and to change direction. You know, the rallies are a bit longer. We are used to, during the career, to have shorter points to play, you know, the attacking tennis. And on clay you have to also be able to defend. That's one of the important parts of clay.

But I felt in this last year and a half I improved really a lot on clay. I would say the most ever that I have improved in such a short period. And I'm feeling great, feeling really good, and looking forward for the challenge with Fabio, I know that Fabio is a great player. We haven't played for, I don't know now, maybe five, six years, or seven years, something like that. Quite a long time.

Yeah, I would say that Fabio's, I think, performances are becoming the best on clay. That's where I feel that he feels the best.

Q. Were you surprised about Fabio's career in a way or not? Would you have expected from him even better results than he had? His best ranking was No. 13 but just for few months. In general on clay he was always quite competitive, but very up and down. How do you explain it, in a way? Do you think it's a mental issue? Strategy?
MARIN CILIC: I think in tennis it's very realistic with the rankings, how they work, you know, every year is realistic, the way you play just transforms directly on the ranking. And Fabio, we all know that he can play great tennis and that when he plays great he's extremely difficult to beat, especially on clay or slower surfaces, even on hard court, where, you know, he still finds a way to win, even beating Rafa in US Open.

It's also very challenging. Tennis is not easy. Mentally you have to be able to find strength, motivation every single week. We are changing surfaces and also changing cities and you have to find that strength, and we are not all the same. So that's why it makes it that special.

Q. You have a special relationship with Italians, in a way. Are you also friend of Fabio outside of the court? You're 29, almost 30. He's 31. Are you friends? Would you go out with him and have fun, or you have two different mentalities, two different kind of people, persons?
MARIN CILIC: I got to know Fabio through the years. Good enough. He's really nice guy. You know, we get along well. And even we have seen each other few times here in Paris. We were going to the same restaurant, same Italian restaurant for dinner.

Q. What do you eat?
MARIN CILIC: We eat pasta, of course. We can't miss that.

Also, we know each other since we were 14. We go so far back. He's always joking with me that I have to speak better Italian, you know.

You know, he's really nice guy. Once you get to know him, you feel that he's really, really nice.

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