LONDON : Catching a millionaire Grand Slam champion in action on the second-tier Challenger Circuit is a rare sight, especially since cheering fans and creature comforts are in short supply when compared to the glitz and glamour of the main ATP Tour events.
Yet this is the world that Marin Cilic, who has amassed a fortune of almost $32 million in prize money alone, has been circulating in for most of this year after his ranking nosedived to outside the Top 1000 following knee surgery in 2023.
With his ranking, which stood at 1092 last August, no longer high enough to gain entry into the ATP events, the Croatian opted to get back to basics at the Challenger level in order to obtain some much-needed match practice.
It was a strategy that worked wonders for Andre Agassi way back in 1998 when he found himself in a tennis rut – and within a year the American had won two Grand Slam titles.
But whereas Agassi was aged 28 at the time, with years of tennis still left in him, Cilic decided to go down the rough road to tennis redemption in his mid 30s.
Having put in the hard graft to get his body back into shape after damage to the meniscus and cartilage made his knee balloon in size, the Croatian was not ready to give up on his career.
On Thursday, all the pain and strain he endured to get back to top-level tennis paid off when he marked his Wimbledon comeback with a 6-4 6-3 1-6 6-4 win over British fourth seed Jack Draper in the second round.
“Considering everything that happened in last two, three years. If even I look at situation where I was, how my knee was in February ’23, lots of rehab, lots of unknowns. Even coming back, the knee wasn’t good. What to do then? New surgery?” the 2014 U.S. Open champion explained after returning to the All England Club for the first time since 2021.
“Then all the time there was this spark of desire and feeling that my level is still there. Let me give myself another opportunity.
“Now last eight, nine months I’m playing pain-free and progressing nicely, which is great.”
During the course of 2025, Cilic had won back-to-back matches on the main tour only once.
However, he has worked his way back up the rankings to break back into the top 100 thanks to winning two of the seven Challenger tournaments he has entered.
He tried qualifying for the French Open but lost his final qualifier and then still secured a place in the main draw as a lucky loser only to lose in the first round.
That disappointment quickly faded when he won the Nottingham Challenger tournament just a few weeks later, ensuring he arrived in London with some much-needed match practice on grass – a run that no doubt helped him to plot Draper’s downfall on Thursday.
“Last several weeks I’ve been playing really well. In Nottingham I played some great tennis. It was just layer after layer building up. Also feeling great in the training sessions, so I’ve got great confidence in my own self,” said the 2017 Wimbledon runner-up.
“These kind of matches, they challenge you to perform better because the opponent on the other side of the net is going to challenge you with his own game. But I’m aware that my level is very high. Can I go further? I feel I can.”
Draper summed up what it felt to be on the receiving end of an in-form Cilic.
“I don’t play many people on the tour that I feel like they completely bully me and take the racquet out of my hand,” said the British number one.
“I know it’s a grass court. I’m not sure what his stats were but I’m sure he had an amazing match from the winners to unforced errors count.”
Draper was not wrong – Cilic hit 53 incredible winners, while his British rival could muster only 29.
