“Not the same,” Marin Cilic talks of the big hole on the Tour since Roger Federer’s retirement
Croatian World No.17 Marin Cilic talks about how it feels to play his first season ever without Roger Federer on tour.
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Roger Federer with Marin Cilic
Croatian veteran Maric Cilic talked about Roger Federer‘s retirement and the void it has created on the ATP Tour while addressing a press conference ahead of the Tata Open in Pune. He was asked about how it feels to play his first season ever without the Swiss on the tour and with the next-gen knocking.
The Croatian World No.17 started on how inspiring it was for him to see the Swiss Maestro break records and continue on top of his game for so long, “I mean it’s sort of obviously we, we all never wanted Roger to leave, you know, because he’s a great guy. Obviously incredible inspiration, not only for us on the tour, but for many kids around the world and so on. And also to many of these next Gen. guys, there are now the top.”
Continuing the train of thought, Marin Cilic opened up on how big an idol Federer still is for a lot of new players on the Tour, “He was and probably still is an idol. So, so definitely difficult to see him go and the tour is. Definitely going to be different, but I would say that you know, we are still lucky to have rough playing, Novak playing also Andy playing there, still keeping this enthusiasm for tennis. Up there it’s not the same without Roger, but I think the guys right now also. That the tour doesn’t feel OK if everything is on Next Gen.”
Roger Federer – The synonym of Tennis for many
The Swiss legend had been the face of Tennis for a long time after the downfall of the American legend Pete Sampras. He played against Sampras only once in their career and won that epic at Wimbledon fourth round in 2001. The five-set thriller lasted three hours and 41 minutes. The final score was 7-6 (9-7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 7-5 . It is still considered one of the best matches ever played in Wimbledon.
This match later came to be known as “passing of the torch” since the Swiss Maestro went on to surpass Pete Sampras’ record of most Grand Slam titles won. He led the race until Rafael Nadal took over the record by winning the 2022 Australian Open.
The Swiss Maestro had to deal with another legend Andre Agassi in the earlier part of his career. He leads 8-3 in career head-to-head. Federer He went on to win the last eight matches played against Agassi after losing three times consecutively to him in the first three matches.
Later, his major opponents before the arrival of fellow Big Three were Lleyton Hewit, Marat Safin, and Andy Roddick. He has a positive head to head against all of these players.
Federer ended his remarkable career with 103 ATP singles titles (second to Jimmy Connor’s record of 109) and 20 Grand Slam titles, two less than the all-time leader Nadal and one less than Novak Djokovic.
Also Read: Marin Cilic confident of challenging anyone on the tour after a “positive” 2022
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Vipul Payattuparambil
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