Marin Cilic says Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are an “inspiration and motivation” to keep on playing in his 30s

Marin Cilic rolled back the years at the Dubai Tennis Championship to beat Alex de Minaur in the first round, his first 10 wins since 2022.

Marin Cilic says Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are an “inspiration and motivation” to keep on playing in his 30s

Marin Cilic, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer (X/CNN)

Marin Cilic rolled back the years at the Dubai Tennis Championships to beat Alex de Minaur in the first round. It was his first Top 10 victory since 2022. The Croatian has suffered long spells of injuries in recent months but has always done well to come back to the court. He recently shared that Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer’s accomplishments motivate him to keep on playing.

Cilic, who won the 2014 US Open and reached a career-high ranking of World No.3 in 2018. The 36-year-old began to grow in confidence after his return from injury last year. He achieved his peak after winning the Hangzhou Open title last year after Zhang Zhizhen in straight sets in the final. He missed the Australian Open due to his ranking position but used his protected rankings in the Middle East swing.

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He opened his 2025 campaign at the Qatar Open but lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the first round. In Qatar, he showed resilience against Alex de Minaur in the first round beating the No.2 seed in three sets to win the match. He’s now into the quarterfinals of the tournament after beating Alexei Popyrin in the Round of 16.

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Cilic is among the few players who competed with Federer and Djokovic in their prime. Federer retired at the age of 40 in 2022, while Djokovic continues to play. Cilic revealed that the two sports legends inspire him to play at the highest level despite his age.

Of course, they are huge inspirations, these guys that are leaders in the sport, dominating the sport, being 35-plus or even close to 40. That’s incredible. Even Novak. Roger was 40 when he was playing incredible tennis. I mean, the science of sports just improved so much. Our rehabs, everything, fitness training, everything has improved so much. The conditions of the tournaments and facilities. Everything just helps so much for the players. I feel it gives you few more years to play, so yeah, it’s good motivation.

Marin Cilic said via Dubai Tennis Championships

The 36-year-old is aiming to get enough rankings points that take him to the Top 100 which will eventually see him climb higher.

Marin Cilic says he believes Jannik Sinner’s story of innocence in the doping saga

Jannik Sinner‘s controversial three-month suspension settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has raised a lot of questions. The Italian tested positive twice for clostebol but was exonerated by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). But WADA appealed the case, demanding at least a one-year ban on Sinner by the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

Jannik Sinner (7)
Jannik Sinner (Image via X)

Surprisingly, a few weeks ago, the anti-doping agency withdrew the case against Sinner and settled for a three-month suspension with the World No.1. Marin Cilic was asked about it during the aforementioned interview and said he believed Sinner but the doping saga left more questions.

For me, looking at it as a player-to-player, happy for Jannik that finally he’s going to be out of it, finally he’s going to have his mind free. I completely believe him in his story. I know him for many years. When he was a kid, you could see he’s like a true athlete. Happy that he can go through. But it raises questions, many questions which are not answered yet. I hope there’s going to be somebody who’s going to answer them.

Marin Cilic said

Sinner suspension began on February 9 and will end on May 4. The Italian star is expected to feature at the Italian Open, which begins three days after his suspension ends.