US OPEN

September 3, 2022

Marin Cilic

Press Conference

M. CILIC/D. Evans

7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Four sets, four hours. Your thoughts on your performance today and moving on now. Tremendous accomplishment.

MARIN CILIC: Yes, absolutely. Another second week. It's fantastic achievement for me. I would say the best tournament throughout my career is here at US Open. Not just from 2014, but overall. Feeling fantastic here every time I do come.

Today's match was a difficult battle. First set could have gone either way. Went the distance, maybe one of the longest, most longest, tiebreaks I ever played in that first set.

I served for the second. Just made few strategic errors when closing out that set, lost second. I would say crucial point was looking from this perspective.

I won the third and fourth set from 1-All, Love-40, winning that game and turning the momentum on my side.

Great battle. Also big credit to Dan for playing that well. I would say was really, really high-quality match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How tricky is it playing a guy like him where he sort of is so smart with the geometry of the court, keeping you off balance?

MARIN CILIC: I would say Dan, looking at his game, you wouldn't say that nothing is so dominant in terms of comparing to some other guys, like serve, forehand. But everything is really effective. His serve is very effective. His placement also very effective, backing up the next shot after that.

Then playing the game a little bit differently. Also when you play against him on best-of-five sets, he can carve you around with his backhand slice, chipping. You have to just play also not great tennis to beat him but also great strategy in those points, critical moments.

Always very, very tricky to play him.

Q. Your next match, someone you've played recently. In the past year since you first played him, what do you think he's improved the most?

MARIN CILIC: Yeah, I played him in Estoril last year. That was around May, May time. What he has improved the most? Hmm, court coverage. Another thing is the creativity. The creativity is fantastic - maybe the best on the tour.

Comparing it with Rafa, for example, Rafa's creativity is fantastic, he's adjusting to every situation fantastically. Carlos is incredible when he's on the front foot. He has so many options with the forehand, going big, line, going cross, sliding dropshots. He's got that incredible creativity.

What else?

He improved, I would say, just that stability in the mindset of playing big points the way he needs to play and trusting the game. Few areas he improved incredibly, yeah.

Q. Being here, does it almost feel like home given everything you've accomplished at this facility?

MARIN CILIC: Yes and no. Yes, in a way where I feel confident coming here that I might find a great game and just set it up.

On the other hand, well, most importantly, is to feel good on the court, hit the ball well. Two Masters 1000s helped me to play six matches, enough match practice. In that part, I'm feeling good.

The other part, that mental stability, decision making, that freshness to be able to take good decisions in the matches in critical moments when they do happen during the matches. That's been fantastic for me in 2014 and a few other years where I played so well.

But on the other hand, what is tricky when you do come here, you can have brutal conditions, courts are fast. If you are just little bit off with your shots, you can be out really quickly of the tournament.

I would say definitely one of the toughest to win, yeah.